Tucson Toast

Xmas and MRIs

2011-12-06T18:20:00.001-08:00

After the busiest November I think I've ever had, December is shaping up to be pretty darn active too. Last month I had the perfect storm of volunteering for things and having everything happen within a few weeks. I made it through though. Technically, one of my November projects is still lingering because, after busting my butt to get a newsletter completed from absolute scratch, the president of Tucson Moms didn't get back to me for TWO WEEKS about the ads. And then sent an off hand go ahead and print it the Friday before I was helping Diane with the reception, teaching for our church group, and then hosting Thanksgiving. Let's just say that I didn't put the newsletter back on my priority list for a while.
In other news, I've been spending a lot of time at the doctor the last couple of weeks and it looks like I'll get to spend plenty more time there in the next few. To sum up the issues: weird bruise like thing on my rib cage that showed up for no reason 4 months ago and is still there; tingling and numbness in my feet, hands and on my legs that I thought was due to rheum. arthritis is not. Either it might be a spinal cord cyst or it is MS. Neither option is particularly appealing. Anyway, I've just had the blood workup of the century (thirteen separate vials and a 2 hour glucose tolerance) and am waiting to schedule the first of likely three MRIs. Super.
Our Christmas preparations are coming right along and we're enjoying the season. It's been really cold (for Tucson). The kids have been very funny lately and play together so much. We just go go go. On Saturday night we took them to my friend Charlene's to see the lights in her neighborhood and have cocoa. It was pouring rain in buckets. What a bummer. However we had a wonderful time at Charlene's. Charlene doesn't have any grandkids yet and has a major preoccupation with Xmas decor. So it was fun for all of us to see all of her decorations. The kids were entertained for literally hours at her house and I think Charlene was pretty entertained too.
This weekend Charles and I are going to stay at the Arizona Inn for a business dinner. I'm looking forward to a night away. Especially because C has been travelling a lot and won't get home until late Friday night.

Aloha Etc. Etc.

2011-10-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun in Hawaii. We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa on Hawaii. Getting there was something of a trial, but I've had worse trips. We had to fly in to Hilo and then drive around the island. We got there at almost 11 at night (started at 9 our time, so that was actually 1 am our time) and then drove 2 hours through the dark along the coast. The kids were WIDE AWAKE the whole time. Our room was in the Lagoon tower and overlooked the ocean and the dolphin pools. This picture is looking directly down from our balcony at the sand pool connected to the main pool. This is where our children spent the majority of the week. We played in the pools, went down the slides, explored the gardens and waterfalls, looked for honu (sea turtles) in the lagoons, and checked out the barracuda in the canals. The boats that usually take people from one tower to another weren't working so that was a bummer, but everything else was great. Picasa isn't letting me upload to my web album right now so I don't have all the vacation photos to show yet. We went to a luau--only Kenna remained awake. I didn't think their luau was the greatest, but we had a good time. With the help of some lovely Japanese ladies, we peeled lychees. And this was the result:

We did the dolphin encounter and that was really cool. Our dolphin was Halea and she was young, so Kenna didn't get to do kisses with her. We got to pet her a lot though and feed her fish. Griffin and Laney kept dropping the fish between Charles legs and the dolphin would grab it. He was getting a little nervous! It was also really cool to be next to the dolphins the whole week. We got to watch them from our balcony in the evenings when they'd free swim together. We swam in the lagoon but I didn't try the paddle boarding like I'd planned to. Next time I'm doing a lot more water sports darn it.
On the last day we drove the rest of the way around the island (Griffin got car sick. Twice) and went to Volcano National Park. This time we were able to drive all the way down to the ocean and that was really cool. I think last time we were there they were having a lot of poisonous fog and we couldn't do it. You decend 4000 feet in 9 miles. At one point it looks like you are about to drive straight off a cliff. I made Charles let us out to do some viewing. He's such a nervous nelly about heights and potentially poisonous fog. Truly. His expression stayed like this pretty much the whole trip that day. It was a really, really long day. We got up at 6:30 Hawaii time and didn't get home until the next day at 11:30 in the morning. So this week we've all been relatively wiped out recovering from the travel.

Aloha!

2011-10-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

Our preschool issue sorted itself out this week and I felt much better. I went to Laney's class on Friday, then went to another teacher's class on Monday. We're going to switch. I was glad I did the observation since it gave me a much better idea of what the problem was. It wasn't the kids. The class is extremely structured. I think Laney will be happier in a more free wheeling class that isn't quite so ordered. I was really stressed out about the whole thing, particularly when it turned in to a "what is wrong with your kid" issue rather than what is wrong with her class. But regardless, I feel confident that we will have a happier kid when school resumes.
Tucson is in the midst of Fall break. I think that between all the various holidays and half days, Tucson kids don't really spend too much time actually at school. It is handy for us however since we're heading to Hawaii tomorrow. So excited!!
The travel day tomorrow will be really really long. That's the downside of frequent flier miles. You get there...eventually. But we have our reservations for the dolphin encounter and luau.
Kenna is still being a brat to the poor little girl at school. I am not sure why. She seems to feel very competitive with her. Maybe because the other girl is also very small and Kenna doesn't get to be the baby? Who knows. Griffin is just happy most of the time unless he's having a toddler moment.
Laney started swim team this week and it went very well. She's a competitive soul. She won't swim meets until she moves up to the blue team but already she wants to win. She does pretty well, though her attention wanders a little bit every so often. After the rebuff we received last year, the team changed leadership and is now accepting young swimmers. Maybe we'll add G and K in the spring. I don't know though. I think that we might try out some other sports for Griffin. He picked himself out a book on football the other day. He's pretty pro-sports considering his father never watches them. Ever. And Kenna wants to do 'nastics and dance.
Kenna told me that the sun looked blue the other day (?) and that if you ate it it would taste like gum. Griffin has a lengthy story to tell about all sorts of things. He told his dad that he had special monster killing shoes that shoot lightening bolts out of them today.
I need to go try to finish a project now. We almost completely packed and ready to go. Two small suitcases and a backpack each. If I feel crazy, I might try to post while we are in Hawaii. Or I might just Facebook. Yes Mom, you should probably get a Facebook account one of these days. I am so jazzed that I finally got my camera fixed. Whoo hooo!

Jesus Loves Me. I Love Burritos.

2011-09-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

Ah. Another day has gone by. If my son doesn't quit peeing in his bedroom, he will not live to see four. We had a personality swap at swimming today. Griffin cried for mommy, Kenna worked it through and ended the lesson with high fives and smiles.
I ran my tushy off this morning after drop off. Went to a meeting about taking over the Tucson Moms newsletter, then to the rheumatologist (yikes. I'm getting a referral to a neurologist now. I'm officially falling apart), then back to school to meet with the director regarding Laney. I am going to observe in her class on Friday and then make a decision about whether to move her. I'm not sure if it is just a stage with her that she'll work through, if it is her class, or if it's her teacher.
Laney was singing in the car today. First she sang "Jesus Loves Me This I Know". Then she talked about wanting to go to Nico's for food. Then she sang:

I love burritos, this I know

Cause my tummy tells me so...

There was more along those lines. Now I'll never be able to hear Jesus Loves Me and not think of burritos!

I also made reservations today for the luau and dolphin encounters. I'm getting excited about our trip. Now I probably need to figure out what we are taking...

Pests...I mean Pets

2011-09-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

Griffin has decided that he has a new pet. A fly showed up in our home yesterday and he was thrilled that it landed on him. It is now his pet. He has really big plans for his new pet. They are going to go for walks outside and it will sleep in his room. Kenna was going to swat the fly and he was horrified. I love that boy. And we need to look in to getting a dog.
The twins restarted ISR swim lessons yesterday. Griffin was soooo excited to show Pam how he swims. Kenna was just pissed. Ms. Pam told her that it was ok to cry but not to scream at her. Ah. My sweet angel. Laney starts swim team today. We should be all ready to swim like crazy in Hawaii.
Laney is still having a problem at school. She just doesn't want to go. I'm thinking that her teacher might not be a good fit and we probably need to make some sort of change. She's too little to not like school! I just hate being "that mom" that is difficult. The pleaser in me doesn't like to make waves and be a pain. I am often doing the inner eye roll at other moms that are high maintenance. I guess it is my turn now. Queue eye rolls, mommy is going in...

Just When You Think You've Figured Them Out

2011-09-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

I think it has been pretty established that my oldest child is what one would call "independent". She has always ventured bravely into the unknown without a backward glance. Until this week. This week we went to school and my daughter had a full out hissy fit. Begging me not to leave her. Begging to spend the day with me. I comforted and then detached myself and left a screaming child to her teacher. When I returned, she had spent the better part of her day crying. She went to the office to call down. She went to the bathroom to call down. When the teacher asked her about it, she told her "sometimes we have crying colds, like babies, and then we just need to cry". Mrs. Miller thought this was something invented by our family as opposed to something dreamed up on the fly by a dramatic child. ha. Mrs Miller also told me that she was deeply impressed by Laney's vocabulary. I guess not every 4 year old thinks her teacher is "tremendous." Laney has also been mysteriously possessed by a helpful, sweet nature. She's been cleaning house, helping me do things, and taking care of her brother and sister.
Griffin and Kenna have also been having adjustment issues. Griffin "Never" Phillips hasn't been listening to his teacher. Kenna has been attempting to boss other kids with limited success. I suppose we'll all be well adjusted by the time it is Fall break and they miss school for a week and a half.

Staying Afloat in the Sea of Domesticity

2011-09-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

Blogging moms are cool, but every so often I read about everything they do (for example Pioneer Woman) and think: Crap. I really suck. Is this just me? Doubtful. But I'm having some serious pangs of envy. Somehow I need to figure out how to do more with my life.
And speaking of my life. What are my big wins of the day? Got bug guts scrubbed off my car and about a pound of kid snack efffluvia vacuumed out. Oh bliss. A clean car. Sigh...enjoying the moment. The sad truth is that I failed to adequatedly remove the remanants of whole colonies of insects that were smeared on the car on our trip north (ahem. yes. in May...) Drive through car wash proved inadequate. Full service car wash elusive. So. I made due and then we returned to AZ. And the monsoon rain did not wash it off either.
I also went to the gym and swam for the first time in a million years. I'm trying to get back into shape again after a long hiatus due to kids and RA. Yea me!
Kids went to school and then we came home and swam in the pool. Griffin can't float but has decided that he is a swimmer. He's swimming between the lagoon shelf and the steps. I think he's swallowing a lot of water while doing it. It scares the heck out of me since sometime he doesn't make it all the way and he flails around for the edge. Yikes! Laney also went to her swim team try out and got placed in a group.
This weekend I'm going to try to dig out from under the pile of "to do's" that have accumulated and get us back to being the well oiled machine of a family we are (ha ha ha).

Snow Day (old post. February?)

2011-09-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

We woke up this morning to an inch of snow. The kids had fun playing in it. I was suprised. I thought we were supposed to get bad weather over night but had no idea we'd get real snow. I had trouble getting them all ready to go to church with the excitement of the snow. Charles drove up to Phoenix yesterday night and flew out this morning to Hawaii. I'm glad he didn't chance driving in the bad weather in the dark. Funny enough, my friend Richelle's husband Eric was on the same flight with Charles! It's small world.

I'm trying to get remotivated today. I started the year out feeling pretty motivated but this last week I've been really bleh. Tired and just not into doing anything. At all. Except eating. So I'm attempting to recharge the motivational engines this week.

The kids are sitting at the table with me right now. We just finished playing "dragons" and "baby birds". Our living room nest is still not picked up. I caught K giving Laney's stuffed animal a hair cut. Now they are all chopping away at the newspaper and practicing using scissors.

I saw Rorie's mom at Target yesterday. She told me that Rorie recently changed her plans to marry her older brother's friend and she's planning to marry Laney instead. LOL.

I think the kids are attempting to chop up the table cloth now. Off I go.

[Found this in my drafts for some reason. So here you go. A post from last winter.]

Back in the Saddle Again

2011-09-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

We made it home without any major hitches. Griffin puked in Deer Lodge. We'd stopped the car and he got up, then puked. I'm pretty sure it doesn't count if we don't have someone throw up once. It is almost guaranteed if we feed them something pink first. I took the twins into the bathroom and to buy dramamine and this old lady gave me a hug in the bathroom. I thought "weird" but I went for it anyway. Never pass up a hug.
We always dress for AZ on the way home and then freeze to death on the way there. Montana is always cold for some reason. It actually hit 32 degrees going through St. Regis. On Labor Day weekend. I guess things warmed up again later though.
It was HOT in Tucson (suprise) and I'd turned our AC off after I got my last bill ($235. Seriously. And we weren't there). I asked Ernie to come over and turn things on before we got there, but it was hot in the house. I couldn't figure out why it was taking so long to cool downstairs until the next day when I realized I hadn't turned on the AC compressor online.
The kids started school and were just thrilled. The twins marched in to Mrs. Wallace's class and started playing and didn't even blink when I left. Laney is in love with her new teacher, who is new to St. As and pretty young. She pronounced Mrs Miller to be "tremendous!" after school. I was nervous because I'd heard some dissatisfied reports from other moms.
We also restarted play group. I need to get my playgroup hat back on and come up with some ideas. September is one of the hardest months because we're all busy and it still really hot out so outdoor stuff is difficult. I think I'm going to have to do one more lame date to give myself some prep time and then we'll be back in action. I'm considering making ice cream in the park--I saw a cool idea for making ice cream in ziplocks where the kids throw them around. Fun, right?
We've also returned to church again which makes me really happy. I like to go to church and I like that it is something that we share as an entire family every week. I missed it over the summer.
We were looking at the tiny amount of photos we took over the summer and realized that we didn't take "after" picts of the house! I'm going to have to con someone into doing that for me.
Today is dentist day for the kids and errands errand errands.

How Moose Make the Trees Grow

2011-08-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

We were on our way up to Sandpoint yesterday to go huckleberry picking and then to my Aunt Kelsey's 80th birthday party in Clark Fork. Laney suddenly brought forth this nugget of "wisdom" gleaned from who knows where (nature shows gone awry?):
Moose make the trees grow because when moose die, the other animals eat them and then that makes trees grow.
[our response: ???!! What?]
Because moose eat trees and when the wolves eat the moose, then the moose don't eat the trees. So then the trees grow.

So. There you have it. Kill the moose, grow a tree.
We went up Schweitzer Mountain to go huckleberry picking and tried to find the spot that my cousin Brian told us about. I think we started counting switchbacks before we should though. We found huckleberries, but they were already picked over and at the end. We needed to go a little higher. But by the time we had hiked up the hill and through the brush for a while, we weren't in the mood to stop again and repeat. We ended up with about 1/2 gallon of berries. Which is not too bad considering we were picking with three toddlers. For those of you not in the know about the huckleberry: it is not a cultivated berry, grows at high altitudes, looks something like a blueberry but it is a lot better tasting. Berry picking involves hiking around in the forest and, since bears including the grizzly also enjoy the berries, we go armed. It adds a certain something to the process. Honestly though I've been doing this for my entire life and have never seen a bear (up close). Kenna was not at one with nature yesterday so she was just cranky about everything. We had a very edifying moment in which we all learned the fine art of peeing in the woods. Girls pee facing uphill, boys pee facing down hill. After picking berries we drove the rest of the way up to Schweitzer ski resort for lunch. The view was great but I shut Griffin's finger in the door of the car so that wasn't so awesome. I couldn't believe how different it was up there. I haven't been up there in a really long (ahem. decades) time and never in the summer.
We went to Uncle Phillip's house to rest and recoup before heading on to Clark Fork. Another place I haven't been to in a long, long, long time. Clark Fork is situated where the Clark Fork river enters lake Pend Oreille. We met up with all of the Hatcher clan at their family home in Clark Fork. I guess Reno's mother owned this little log house there. It's a funky little place and very filled with Hatchers. My aunt Kelsey is my grandfather Phil McNearney's little sister. She married Reno Hatcher and they had 8 kids. Who all had lots of kids (or adopted lots of kids). Between marriages and adoptions they are sort of a mini UN.
I'm torn between having Charles help me remove doors to paint or taking the kids to Art on the Green today.

August Already?

2011-08-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a difficult summer. Dad went in to the hospital the day we left Tucson with pneumonia and he didn't leave again until last week. His pneumonia led to a heart attack and then on to pulmonary edema, kidney failure, a tracheostomy, medical coma, a series of stents for the arteries in his heart that were blocked 99% (and no bypass surgery because he couldn't survive it), bacterial pneumonia, staph infection, possibly another stroke in a series of strokes, a rehab center, a recucitation, ICU again, a rehab/extended ICU hospital again, another rehab center and then home to my mother's 24-hour care. He was brought back from near death 3 times. He lost so much weight I could see the outlines of all of his bones. He had ICU induced psychosis. Let's just say that it wasn't the summer that I thought it was going to be.
So I haven't written much in my neglected blog. Somehow I need to get back in to the habit again. I'd post pictures, but my camera broke too.
Anyway, enough of all that. What else have I been doing this summer? Yes, I have done other things besides sit in a hospital. I'll give a quick run down of the high points and then I'll try to go back to fill in with more detailed posts.

We built a chicken coop! My hubbie did a great job and we built the cutest little coop that is just perfect for our two borrowed chickens. The kids named the two hens Peach and Boy. The saga of chicken keeping is worthy of a whole post of its own.
We painted our house (and are still painting it). Ourselves. Specifically mostly me. I even tore down the old gutters myself and boy was Charles impressed with me climbing on to the roof and banging the gutters off. Not only did we paint it, we painted it black. Ok. Not exactly black. It is a very dark grey/brown called Ebony Field. Yeah. I know. This is also worthy of its own post. And pictures!
I've made jam like it's a calling from God. Seriously. We went out to Green Bluff with the kids one afternoon and picked strawberries (they taste amazing when eaten in the field) and then made jam with mom. I think we made 24 or so pints that day. Then I got crazy with my bad self. I picked our raspberries and made jam. I picked Dana's cherries and made jam. I'm going to pick huckleberries and make jelly. I bought my own canner this year. I'm officially a grown up.
We went camping for 6 days over the 4th of July.
I planted my first garden. It was sort of late since we had to deal with tilling issues and weather, but I put it in and have eaten things that it produced. My first vegetable garden!!
I made curtains for my living room. Mostly.
I hosted a pampered chef party and a book club party.

I have a whole list of stuff that I'd like to do before we head home this fall. Some things are little and some are bigger. I want to go huckleberry picking, go to the fair, go kayaking, go to Art on the Green, take the kids hiking on Tubbs hill and to the beach, take the kids fishing, host a cowboy themed birthday party for the twins, drink a few really excellent lattes, maybe make some applesauce, and start to remodel my bathroom. I've got 4 more weeks!

Waiting for the Sunshine

2011-06-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

Quick update since last post: Finished school etc., headed to Idaho, got to Flagstaff and found out my dad was put into the ICU and had pneumonia, a heart attack and kidney blockage. Made the rest of the trip unsure whether we would see dad when we got here. He's been in ICU for two weeks today. Tuesday they did a surgical trachistomy and he was able to wake up and respond to everyone yesterday. He even sat up for the first time in 2 weeks. This morning he had two episodes of tachycardia and they are making the decision now on whether to do an angiogram. He's back in a medical coma again.
It's been cold and wet here (suprise. not) and we've been busy busy trying to get everything back into shape in the yard and house. I've got big renovation plans for the kids bath this summer and we're going to plant a garden. My sweet cousin Brian just got a job at the lesbian llama ranch and is bringing a load of "compost" over today for the garden. I've rented a tiller for tomorrow. We're kind of a little behind in getting things planted, but the family tiller hasn't been in good working order (machine or man).
We went to Sandpoint over Memorial weekend and visited the cemetaries. I had planned to do this before dad got sick and went ahead with it. Charles and I took the kids to Pinecrest and visited Grandma's grave (Smith. She passed last spring. Today would be her birthday). In retrospect, given the current climate in our lives we might not have taken the kids. Laney had a lot of questions and I got weepy a few times. Prior to the cemetary, we got lunch and then Griffin barfed all over himself as we left the drive thru window. Appetizing. So we made a stop at WalMart for more clothes. It was cool to see all of the headstones and recognize so many of our ancestors. My grandparents, their parents (with the exception of my grandma's dad) and my Grandma's grandmother are buried there.
After that, Charles dropped me at Uncle's and I met Mom, Aunt Lynda, Uncle Phillips, Uncle Curt, Ian, and Aunt Joyce, Matt and Michelle, and we made the trip out to Pack River cemetary to visit Grandpa and Grandma's McNearney graves. We take beer and have a beer with Grandpa--we each pour out a little for him. Afterward we go plant shopping in honor of grandma. Yeah. We're weird. I love to go out there because that area of Sandpoint is just beautiful. Seriously. Like Oh My God! beautiful. I'll take pictures one of these days if my camera ever gets fixed.
That afternoon we all went to Aunt Joyce's for a BBQ. Charles and the kids went early. The kids got to feed the baby calves their bottles and chase chickens/play in the hay/generally make a ruckus. Michelle took pictures, so when I get some, I'll post them.

Force March Phillips

2011-04-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

In my brilliance, I decided to take my playgroup hiking. We went to Catalina State Park yesterday. Of course, it was the hottest day of the spring so far (about 90. seriously). I was initially planning to do a short flat hike at the Romero Ruins, but the guy at the booth said to do the Canyon Loop since there was water still in some pools. So I looked at the map and thought, hey we can do this. When we started, I wasn't sure where the trail head was for our loop and chose the one closest to the parking lot. I had a feeling though that we should start at the other side of the loop but didn't act on it. First part of the hike was a steep uphill and then we went up hill, up hill, up hill. My kids were horrible but everyone else's were great. The twins wanted to be carried though and so I did the majority of the hike holding someone and my friend Jill (bless her heart) carried Kenna quite a bit. The hike took FOREVER. Laney was supposed to go to school but we didn't get back until 12:30 and school, which was a 20 minute drive away, started at 12:15. I felt terrible for making her miss school and boy was she mad. I'm pretty sure all of the other moms were hating me by the end of that hike too. I think we hiked about 2.5 miles. Secretly though I enjoyed the hike even with my whiney kids. We'll have to go again. But next time I'm bringing more supplies. Like trail mix. Because hiking is a lot more fun if there are M&Ms involved.

Wax B's and Eye Disease

2011-03-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

Oh, glorious day. I looked in the mirror this morning and discovered that my eye was NOTswollen, red, itchy, and was only slightly peeling/flakey. For the first time since January. It has been just as awesome as you would imagine it would be to have said eye condition for nearly 3 months.
Not much on the agenda today. I cleaned the kids' rooms and we generally hung out. Looks like we're mostly on the mend. The kids still have a cough if they get active, but things seem to be clearing. I can't tell if I'm still sick or just allergic to everything. It is pollen season in the old pueblo.
The kids keep trying to go swimming. The pool is freezing cold, but it's been in the 80s every day for a little while and looks like it will be continuing. Spring is sprung.
As I mentioned previously, writing is a big activity in my house. On my way down the stairs yesterday, I discovered a big red B drawn on the stair carpet using red chapstick. Hmm. Also, a tiny robot looking thing has appeared on Laney's wall. In ink pen. I have a lot of painting ahead of me.

Creativity

2011-03-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

It amazes me how fast children can change. In just the last couple of weeks, Laney has suddenly become a writer and artist. The light turned on and pow! There it all was suddenly. She's been writing all of her letters and her name and she made Charles a card the other night that was just the cutest thing. It had little people and caterpillars and things. Sure you may say, kids do this all the time and mine is always drawing something. Well, mine didn't. So one day no drawing, the next day figural drawings in lots of detail.
Griffin is still unusually attached to his pajamas. We fight about it whenever I need him to wear decent clothes (like to church) and he only wants to wear his tiger jammies. Hopefully this is a stage that goes quickly.
We went to church this morning and then went started our parenting class again. Then we went to the park for a church picnic. It was fun. Yesterday we cleaned the garage (or at least got a good start on it) and then I cleaned the car in the afternoon. It was amazingly satisfying to clean my car. It was just so gross that I felt bad every time I got in it or someone saw it. Yuck. Now it is clean and good. On the inside. I still need to go get it washed.
This afternoon I made gumbo and we all watched the Princess and the Frog together. The gumbo was awesome. I like okra though. Unlike the ladies on Our Best Bites, I do not believe that it is a vegetable grown in Hell and hoed personally by the devil himself. I guess I like goopy veggies. Now I need to go back and print out the recipe before my temporary membership to the website expires. Sad, yes?
Feeling sleepy now from too much gumbo (and a couple glasses of wine) so off I go. Got to help C get ready to leave again tomorrow.

Home Improving, Health Deteriorating

2011-03-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

Bleh. We're all sick at the Phillips house. Griffin caught the crud last week and we've been passing it along. The bummer is that it doesn't seem to go away once you get it. So he's still hacking up a lung and now the girls and I are too.
I painted the living room over the weekend. Ernie brought a scissor lift over and I got to work. It was really fun to use a lift to paint. I'd totally do it again. I got really good at driving it. I painted the room a light tan, but Diane told me that it looks yellow. And I guess it does a little bit in the afternoon. Oh well.
Next up is getting my filthy carpet cleaned. I am also going to repaint the dining room. The piano is going to move into the living room instead of the dining room. It just too squished in there.
Charles and I are going to start co-leading a parenting discussion group at the church. I know, funny isn't it?
Mike went to jail over the weekend and Zack has a broken nose. Not sure what all is going on. We'll find out more this weekend I suppose.
This weekend we need to get out and start cleaning up the yard. My poor palm trees are seriously toast. I'm not sure if they will make it.

Baptism

2011-02-24T17:23:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we were baptized en masse: me, Laney, Griffin and Kenna. Diane and Ernie, Leah, Olive and Don came to the procedings. We came back to the house for brunch afterwards. Later that evening, Charles and I went out to dinner at the Omni for a work thing. Ollie stayed at our house with the kids.
It's Rodeo week in Tucson and Laney had fun at school. They brought bikes to school on Wednesday and had a bike rodeo. Today we went to the park and met Jill and Madelynn, then out to lunch with them and Richelle and her kids.
I think maybe next year we will be ready to try out the Rodeo parade. The kids are a little young yet to brave the crowds for rodeo.

Deep Thoughts and Poopy Shoots

2011-02-17T21:19:00.001-08:00

I'm just shocked tonight. I was watching the news after the Mentalist and they did a story on a cold case murder. Last summer, after we had gone to Idaho, a man was murdered at Chik fil A. A man walked up to him and shot him in the head, then pedaled away on a bike. At like 7 in the morning. I heard about the murder when we returned in the fall, but did not realize until tonight--he was the dad of one of the little girls in Laney's dance class. I see his widow 3 times a week at St. Andrew's. I've talked to her at dance class. I had NO idea that this happened to their family. She's got 4 kids under the age of 10. It's unsettling to have so many tragic events occuring to people I know and at places I go.
[pause to reflect]
Ok. On a completely different note: we finally finished the enormous jar of cheesy puffs that I was conned in to buying at Costco. Sadly, we will no longer be able to fulfill requests for "poopy shoots" from Kenna. I laughed every time she asked me for poopy shoots. I'd ask her "do you want cheesy poofs?" and she'd say yes, I want some poopy shoots. LOL.
Griffin told me in the car yesterday on the way to pick up Laney and Rorie (our carpooling friend from school) that he loved Rorie. I said that was nice. Don't you love Laney too? He said no. He didn't love Laney. "Laney smells". These things start way earlier than I ever expected.
Laney is always talking about her future career plans. I am not sure why. I've never asked her for this information, she just volunteers it. Science careers figure heavily with doctor usually leading. This week, she was thinking about giving up the medicine dream to pursue dolphin training at Sea World. We watched Flipper earlier in the week. But it was back to medicine by today. Then in the car we were watching "The Incredibles" and at the end the bad guy gets sucked in to a jet engine (No capes!) at which point she speculated: "I bet his brain came out when that happened." Me: pardon?! Really, what can you say to something like that?

Amen to That

2011-02-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

It's official. We're Presbyterians. We completed our two evening new member meetings and we got voted in officially. So now I belong to a church. Next up: baptism. I had to get 4 forms. I feel a little funny talking about it since I'm so not the religious type. I'm still sort of amazed that I'm going to church. But I must admit that I really am enjoying going. I still feel a little bit funny praying so much and talking about God a lot.
I've been working on my preschool packets to register the kids for next year. Yikes. Next year is going to be expensive! Whoo. But so worth it. So worth it.
In other news, I got my allergy testing done. And put up with days of welts all over my arms. I'm allergic to everything. Except mold and arizona cypress. The other 47 things are a definite yes. I was suprised that I was allergic to cats, dogs, and dust mites. I suspect everyone probably is just slightly. I got my first allergy shot on Thursday.
The eye thingy is still going strong. I probably should try to go back to the doctor.
The kids and I took a long walk (they all ran) tonight. The weather was just gorgeous. It's going to be 80 again tomorrow. Too bad everything froze so hard. My poor little petunias are mostly gonners.

Infection and Connection

2011-01-31T19:27:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it through the week. My eye infection is still hanging around though and that is making me irritated and ugly since I'm trying not to wear eye makeup. We did the usual stuff all week. School, dance, play group. Charles got home on Friday afternoon and left this morning at 6. He'll be back again on Thursday night. I didn't go to Phoenix to meet Uncle (sorry again Unc) because my eye was bugging me so much and the prospect of three hours of driving (half at night) was just too overwhelming.
On Saturday night I went out for a Mom's Night with playgroup. We had the best time. We played games and laughed and talked until midnight. I couldn't believe it was so late! I think it was one of the best mom's nights we've ever had. Today we went to St. Andrew's to tour the 4 year classes. I don't feel any particular affinity for any of them though. There is a definite preference in the three's for Mrs. Wallace if you ask around, but there doesn't seem to be a favorite among the 4s teachers. Except for Mr. Merritt, who is really cool and dresses up in costumes and does crazy stuff, but he teaches a T/W/Th class that has two mornings and an afternoon. Nah. I'm looking forward to being able to send all of them to school and have a few hours off. Though it will cost a fortune. C'est la vie. Our packets come out on the 15th.
We have our first membership dinner at church Thursday night, which I'm looking forward to. Then we do a second one the following week. I don't know if Charles will officially join since he wants to remain a Catholic, which is fine with me. Maybe we'll go to the Catholic church in Post Falls during the summers. I imagine I'll have to get baptized, which I sort of dread. We'll see. My friend Jill is also joining. I didn't know that she's been doing the Friday woman's book group there.
In the kids department, Laney is really starting to do a lot of drawing and writing. It's cute because she writes her name backwards. The downside of a big long name is that it takes a long time to learn to write it. I found out today that I shouldn't be mixing upper case and lower case letters when I show her name. Oops. I'll start doing the big D and lower case everything else.
Griffin has been a little pill lately as only a 2 year old can be. He's defiant and obstinate. We made mini pizzas together tonight. I try not to think of home many times he licks the spoon as he spreads the sauce. It's just better that way.
Kenna is chapped all over her face at the moment and her other issues are still in force. She told Charles that "her highness" (aka nether regions) hurt the other day. We decided that was a pretty appropriate word for her. She's such a little princess and loves to be waited on. She is really good at playing the helpless baby. She makes me dress her and help her with the potty etc. Griffin dresses (and redresses and redresses and redresses) himself and does all potty business on his own. He's all about the independent. K was gifted with a hand me down baby stroller from Leah and is in absolute heaven.

Fairies, Swimming, and Puppets

2011-01-23T20:46:00.001-08:00

Starting out another single parenting week. C left for Vegas today and won't be back until Friday. The kids and I went to church together this morning and then I went to K'Deo, the Sunday school puppet show. They've been after me to go to the puppet show with them for a while so I figured why not? It was ok. I even survived the confetti cannon at the end.
Charles and G went to the hardware store together and got haircuts yesterday. They've been having a lot more father/son bonding time lately. Griffin proudly announces that he's "daddy's little buddy". Charles just finally realized how cool he is I guess--and G is getting less attached to Mommy so that helps tremendously.
I have some sort of weird eye disease. I went to the Minute Clinic on Friday and they gave me some stuff for it that helped a little, but it's getting worse in a different spot now. I'm heading to the allergy doctor tomorrow so maybe that will help. My eyelid is puffy and itchy in a ring around my eye. It's awesome. Really.
We went to the Mini Time Machine museum last Thursday and it was pretty cool. The next time my parents come down we'll have to go see it. Though, unlike some museums my mom and I saw in Cornwall, there were no taxidermied kittens on swings. Yeah, I was disappointed about that. The best part of the museum is looking for the fairy. She flies in near the door and you can see her glow and hear her sparkling, then she goes inside her tiny little door in the wall (it's a light on the wall). She also appears as a hologram image inside the magic tree in the museum. The great majority of the kids' time was spent jockeying for position in front of the fairy hollow. The twins also spent a great deal of time running and screaming in the echoing room. I was really proud that they were mine...
On Friday we went to swim lessons, which everyone adores. Then Charles and I went swimming with the kids during their open swim session. The twins better learn how to float. Griffin is convinced he knows how to swim, so he just launches himself into the water. Whether you're looking at him or not.

Crash and Nearly Burn

2011-01-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

(Slow posting this was actually for Wednesday January 19)
We had a good weekend. On Sunday we went to church and Kenna made a project "for Jesus!!" Then we had a relaxing day and didn't do much of anything. Though Charles did finish his wall building and painting. His addition looks great! On Monday I sent them to the park together and I cleaned house. Charles returned and said that he wasn't cut out for that job. Too much to watch for at once. That afternoon we went over to Olive and Don's to visit. They are debating on selling their massive nativity collection (I told them I would help). There are over 300 of them.

Yesterday Charles left and things were going relatively well until about dinner time and then all hell broke loose. I was trying to get dinner ready and Griffin was "helping" me. During a rather key part of the cooking he suddenly lost his balance and fell off his chair--and swept the counter trying to save himself. Down came G and down right behind him came my Pampered Chef batter bowl (it's large, heavy and glass). I watched slow motion as he landed and the bowl bounced about 3 times. On the third bounce it exploded. So I got kind of excited about everything and the girls tried to run in to the kitchen. I yelled at them to get out, ran for the broom to sweep the glass explosion up and came back to start sweeping. Meanwhile dinner was burning. I checked dinner (thank god) and realized that in the fall he knocked the plastic bottle of olive oil over and onto the lit stove. It had melted through the top and was pouring oil onto my stove top. I expect I was about 45 seconds from a massive grease fire. Crisis averted, dinner served, and I had a glass of wine. One of the kids asked me for something and I turned back to find Kenna trying to chug my wine (quite an oenophile that one). So I packed them all off to bed without a bath. Kenna refused to wear her pullup. I caved. I went to bed not long after them.

Kenna peed her bed at about 2 am. I got her cleaned up and put her in my bed, but she woke Griffin who also wanted in my bed. They both wanted to sleep in my spot. We did some negotiating and settled down to sleep. Except my son didn't want to go back to sleep. I finally sent him back to his room at about 3 and he stayed up and kept me up for another hour and a half. Then he was up promptly at 7.

We skipped Kenna's dance class today because she didn't get up until almost 8:30. We went to Laney's. Then we came home and had lunch and went to take Laney to school. I got all the way there, went to take the kids out of the car and discovered that Laney (who had run out to put herself in the car) had declined to wear any shoes. No shoes at all. So we had to drive all the way back home, get shoes and return. I would have skipped it all together, but we car pool with another family and it was my turn to pick up the girls today. I was so mad I could spit. Griffin fell asleep for a nano second in the car on the return trip and that was his nap for the day.

So, not exactly a joy of parenting week. I need a nap.

Thoughts and the Brain

2011-01-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

It is so strange to have Tucson be the focus of national news. Seeing the churches, schools and shopping centers of my neighborhood on the news all the time is a little disconcerting. Somehow real life and "news" don't seem to be connected most of the time. But I guess it's the week for surreal life. Laney has a new classmate and I saw his mom and thought "weird, I know that woman from somewhere". Then I figured it out--she is the blogger behind the decorating blog Three Men and Little Lady.
Laney told me today that she's going to be a brain doctor. This has nothing to do with the news (which we haven't watched at all) and everything to do with seeing an ad for a neurology seminar series in the newspaper. She made me read all about the brain to her. She thinks brains are cool. She's just not too sure about shots. Doctoring may be called off if there are shots involved (for her).
We had a great day at playgroup today (my first day as "leader"). The weather was gorgeous. Now that my parents have left, the weather returned to the upper 60s and low 70s.
Kenna told me tonight that she was little and needed "just a little chocolate. not big. Two pieces." Then she gave me a big sly smile and added "or three?"

Wow, is it 2011 Already??

2011-01-09T20:27:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, I know. I guess I go into occasional blog funk or something. It has to do with how tired I am at the end of the night I think. Anyway, we've had a busy busy busy few months but I'm back to posting again. In summary: Thanksgiving at Olive's (yea! Tim, Carol and C visited), joined a church (yeah, I know, weird), did the whole Christmas thing (started organized, rapidly devolved), Mom and Dad visited for New Year.
The kids just started a new round of activities. Laney and Kenna are dancing again. I bought the cutest pettiskirt things at Costco. Laney gets tap shoes this time around. Of course, she did her first dance lesson and realized her friend Cameron is in gymnastics and seems to not get along with her teacher so we'll see... Kenna has been dying to go to dance, got there and refused to participate while covering her eyes. I don't really understand. Griffin plays with the car set and is content.
All the kids will be in swimming starting this Friday. Not sure what the twins will think, but given their intense desire to play in the backyard and get water out of the pool, they'd better learn to swim. Laney is taking advanced lessons and learning strokes. I'm also the new playgroup leader since Richelle has decided to simplify by stepping down as leader. We'll see how that goes.
The kids all got bikes for Xmas and we're trying to figure out how to ride them. The twins have these prebikes that don't have pedals. Kenna got pushed on her bike and now doesn't want to bother doing the work herself.
We achieved potty training success in early December (with continued minor messiness). Griffin is completely trained (night time too!) and Kenna went back to pullups at night but otherwise is done. He suddenly got the memo and all was well. This is one of the reasons that I didn't blog for a while. I'm sure you didn't want to continually read about potty training and it was really consuming my life. And a lot of Lysol wipes.
So cute story of the day: Kenna is just the singing-est kid lately and makes up her own songs quite a bit. Her latest is entitled the "Larry Song". Why? Who knows? It's hilarious though and if I can manage it I'll get video of her singing. The Larry song is always sung at high volume. It's about Larry. She particularly likes to sing it while jumping on the bed.
PS Regarding Xmas cards. I have had numerous trials and tribulations attempting to acquire and fill out cards this year. I'm thinking I might be able to manage Valentines. So to all of you: Happy Holidays!! And I probably don't have your addresses anymore unless you sent me a card since my computer with the addresses went kablooie.

My Name is Lisa

2010-11-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Kenna has decided that her name should be Lisa. Every time she tells us that her name is Lisa (I don't know why it is Lisa), it reminds me of the time that we went to a family reunion in Canada and Amanda's daughter Auguste told everyone that her name was "Michelle" and that Auguste was no more.
We just finished eating doughnuts. I got up and made apple spice cake doughnuts for breakfast. They were really yummy. Today we are going to a birthday party and I'm going out to dinner and a movie with my moms group.
Laney got promoted in her new swimming class yesterday. She started last week and they put her in their beginner class. I explained that she could swim, but they insisted. So I cringed through the whole lesson watching them "help" her swim and "help" her float. She even seemed sort of uncertain about it all. I talked to the manager and told her that if they wanted to test her, they should just ask her to swim across the pool. Well, this week she wasn't new to the whole thing anymore so by the time the manager checked in with the instructor the instructor said "oh yeah, she's ready". About midway through the lesson, D was starting to get a little bored and I expected her to swim off across the pool at any moment. She took a few trial swims, but stayed put mostly. Next week we move lesson times and are sharing our class with Campbell, our friend from dance class. Both girls are ISR girls and close to the same age, so they should be good in a class. Laney thinks that Nicola, Campbell's mom, is awesome. She's a doctor and Laney told her last week "I want to grow up to be a doctor in a hospital!". Then Laney told me later that she'd thought it over and she decided that she wasn't going to get married, she was going to be a doctor. I told her that being a doctor was a great idea and that if she fell in love, she could probably get married too. Since Laney found out that Nicola was a doctor, she's had a few questions for me. Like why I don't have a job. It's been an interesting conversation.
Griffin is just being his cute little self lately. He's cute even when being a butt. I am going to make him a chef hat and apron for christmas I think. He's so into cooking and helping in the kitchen. I've got to go wrap presents for the birthday party we're going to this afternoon.

Halloween Treats

2010-10-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

We hosted our playgroup Halloween party at my house. I decided to make some treats for the party (because I have so much free time, but I've been dying to try these out) and made the cake pops from the Bakerella website. There is something about cute food that I have a weakness for. The kids and I made a red velvet cake per Bakerella instructions. I will never make another one. What is the purpose of the red dye? It makes a horrible mess. To add to the problem, you crumble the cake up, mix it with frosting and roll it into balls. I did not appreciate the red dyed hands and then to feed them to children? Um, never again. All griping aside though, they turned out relatively cute and tasty for the very small amount of effort I expended. I'll do it again. With yellow cake.

San Diego Picts

2010-10-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

So I was looking through the pictures from our trip and found this one. Just had to share. I bought the kids goggles for the trip (clearance at Target). I don't normally let them use goggles, since it isn't an ISR ok thing. Let's just say that the goggles were an enormous hit. Griffin wanted to go everywhere in his. This is us riding the elevator. He wore his goggles to eat his breakfast. Yeah, he's special.

The View from Under the Bus

2010-10-15T21:42:00.001-07:00

So Laney went upstairs with Charles tonight to do the bedtime ritual. We'd just watched this really weird cartoon movie about the Secret of Kells (weird. really. with flaming eyed square viking types) and she was in an emotional mood. Here's my understanding of the tearful conversation that followed between her and her dad:
Laney was crying because she didn't ever want to leave home to marry a man and not be with her daddy anymore. Charles struck one for the feminist cause by asking her why the man wouldn't be moving in with Laney. And pointing out that she would always have a home with her daddy.
Moving on to topic two: she wants to die first before her dad (yeah. I know. She's obviously related to Charles. And she isn't even 13 yet. We've got some Good times ahead.) He said that he needs to die first, but that he'll try to live a long time first. Her response? Oh, ok. But mom can die first!
Under. The. Bus. That's me.

San Diego Etc

2010-10-13T07:39:00.001-07:00

We got back from our trip to San Diego on Monday afternoon. We had a good time. I thought it was really interesting to see the MCRD (Marine Corp Recruit base. Yeah, I don't know what the D stands for. Shoot me). I'd seen part of it while we were in SD last time on the way to Charles favorite burrito place. I must say that not letting people walk across the grinder is a major pain in the butt. Poor little Kenna had lots of juice for breakfast and then didn't get taken to the bathroom before we left the hotel. About 10 minutes into the car ride she told us she needed to go potty. I told her to hold it and then we hit traffic...then we finally got onto base and the car was searched...and then we had to drive around and find parking...and then we met everyone in the parking lot and hiked about 1/2 mile around the grinder (yes, I'm exaggerating, but truly it was a long way). Aunt Di was holding her and I was distracted by the massive pain I was in caused by a long walk in heels carrying a 30 pound toddler. She told Di that she needed to go and Di told her to wait until we found seats. We were in front of the grandstands when she started to pee--all over Diane. The mother of the recruit. It was a quantity like I've never seen. Poor Diane!! I ended up having to walk all the way back to the car for a pull up and back again. But it was our fault that she had an accident, not Kenna's. Tim asked me "I thought you said she was potty trained" but really--she held it almost an hour after needing to go and it's not like she can just take herself to the bathroom is it?

Then during the ceremony, Griffin peed through his pull up all over my lap. So both the twins christened the grinder. Is that a sign??

Our graduate was about 6 inches taller than the last time I saw him. Seriously, he towered over everyone. I think maybe he hunched a lot prior to boot camp and standing straighter combined with heeled shoes and a big hat made him TALL. The Marines made him skinnier too. He had that look about him, like childhood has been rubbed off, you know what I mean?

After the ceremony, we all met up in Old Town San Diego for lunch. A guy came by our table and made balloon sculptures for all the kids. Our hotel had a free happy hour every night so we were the place to be. Everyone met there for drinks before going out. The kids ran everywhere and tried to mess with the courtyard landscaping and the koi. We were across the street from Seaport Village so we went there for dinner several times.

Saturday we went to the beach at Mission Bay. The water was cold and it was windy, but we actually had a really good time. Until it was time to go home. The twins were getting pretty tired from missing naps and they had a massive melt down leaving the beach. Screaming snot-running hissy fits. Largely because I wouldn't pick them up and carry them. I think we brought half the beach sand home with us!

Sunday we went to Sea World and it was great. We saw a lot of things that we didn't see the last time we were there. It's sort of a bummer that the Shamu show doesn't feature trainers riding the whales anymore since it was spectacular before and sort of ho hum now. But I guess the prospect of a whale killing a trainer during a show really puts the damper on it. The kids liked the new shark exhibit so much that we went through twice in a row.

Anatomy and the Pasta Isle

2010-09-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

Laney and I went to the store together on Sunday. While we were shopping, I picked up a lemonade Koolaid mix. Laney wanted a different color, so as we proceeded down the pasta isle in the bus cart she yelled at me: "Moommm, I can't have lemonade! It makes my penis hurt!". To which I replied calmly, "you don't have a penis". (others in pasta isle are laughing). Laney keeps going with the penis theme. She does have one and it hurts if she drinks lemonade. I decided that a more face to face chat would be in order. So there I was, in the pasta isle, telling her: Laney, you don't have a penis. You have a vagina. Boys have penises. And we don't usually yell about our parts when we're in the store. Then we went back, exchanged the lemonade mix for pink lemonade and continued on.
Charles is off to Denver again and we're holding the fort. We had our first carpool day yesterday. We are picking Rorie up after school for Tues and Wed and Rorie's grandma will pick Laney up on Thursday. So I guess at least one of the school days the twins will get a longer nap. Laney was really whoopin' it up to impress our guest. She took off her car seat straps (a recently learned skill--she can both buckle and unbuckle now), she talked nonsense and then laughed hysterically, she purposely mispronounced Rorie's name over and over again. We had to have a serious talk after dropping Rorie off. It made me realize though what a big personality Laney is compared to other kids.
Off to water the new plants now. The calamondin is not looking happy.

The Streak

2010-09-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

It was a long week. Charles left last Monday and was gone until Saturday night. He came home for Sunday and left Monday until Wednesday. The kids were all sick with colds last week too. We made it through though and really it wasn't too bad. We went across town on Friday to shop for some bedding for Kenna. I took the kids to visit Olive and Don and then we went to Homegoods. It was getting a little late and lunch needed to happen, but I was trying to complete the mission. So we did the quick shop and went to the check out--where all hell broke loose. While I was trying to check out I started to hear laughter in the line and turned around to find Kenna stripped butt naked. Like not a stitch on including no shoes. I calmly finished paying for my stuff while she ran through the store grandstanding for all the people. Laney melted down because I wouldn't buy her a makeup kit and Griffin ran off with a rolling backpack and was doing the circular route through the exit doors and back into the store with it. By the time I was done I literally hauled three screaming children, three bags of comforter/pillows/etc, and a twin stroller out of the store and across the parking lot while the crowd of seniors looked on. A definite joy moment
I cleaned all the carpet in the house (and it was immediately peed on again). For some reason I said yes to play dough and moon sand after finishing cleaning the carpet. BIG MISTAKE. BIG. I did not realize that moon sand was invented by the devil. I've swept and vacuumed about 5 times now and am still finding purple moon sand everywhere.
We're having big car seat milestones this week. I threw G in his seat the other day and went around the car to buckle in the girls. When I came back to buckle him in, it was all done. Amazing. Laney figured out how to get out of her car seat later in the week.
Laney and Griffin knocked down a box of hats and gloves right before school on Tuesday. They both decided that they needed to wear a hat. So Laney wore a fuzzy orange hat that made her look like DJ Lance (Yo Gabba Gabba for those not in the know) to school and Griffin wore a snowflake pattern ear flapped knit hat. It was almost 100 out and humid like nothing else. Kenna had to take her plastic Elmo purse and the puppy on the string in with her. We were a parade of freaks. But hey, we're used to the circus effect. Griffin has continued to wear the hat occasionally. He looks a little like Elmer Fudd.
We are off to play group in a little while. We're doing a kindermusik demo today. Tonight we're going to the Greek festival (fried cheese!!).

The Grass is Always Greener (when it's fake)

2010-09-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

We have grass. It is very, very green and shiny. I should have installed it with the grain of the grass (yeah, our grass has a grain) facing the house but I didn't want to buy more grass to do the install that direction. So it runs side to side and our view from the house is somewhat shinier than it is from the pool. Isn't it funny how you obsess over little things when you do things yourself?
Ernie came over to help with the install on Saturday. Seriously, he's just the best. And he brings tools. We've started saying the same thing over and over "Yes, we have an X. It's in Idaho". As in we have a hammer, we have a wheelbarrow, etc. Charles moved all three tons of crushed rock off the driveway himself and Ernie brought the plate compactor. We were done installing by early afternoon. Now I have a chunk of grass left and I'm thinking of adding another grass area over by the end of the pool. I'll have to do seaming, but I think I can. Overall, I think I like the grass. It does get hot in direct sunlight but cools immediately in shade and it is a rather bright green, but it's nice to have it out there. I keep feeling this little shock every time I look out the window and see green.

Projects

2010-09-07T08:52:00.001-07:00

I should be working on my lengthy to do list, but I'm going to blog instead. We have been working on the back yard and I've been trying to get the twins' rooms put together so it's been busy. One of these days I will learn to take a before picture (and post after pictures...). We destroyed our yard earlier in the year in a fit of enthusiasm. The patio against the west wall was torn out and we removed the dog kennel fencing. We also quit watering the grass. Then we left for the summer. Let's just say that it was a MESS. It wasn't that awesome before our "improvements" this spring, but it was yikes-worthy by last month. I guess once I start spending money, I just can't stop. It's weird. So after buying a second home and working on improving it all summer, we hired a somewhat sketchy team of guys to put in new patios and brick edging plus a new outdoor kitchen. Ooooh, ritzy, yes? We also walled off the mechanical section of the yard with the A/Cs and pool equipment. And we removed all of the dark red ugly rock. I've ordered grass from Costco and it should arrive at the end of the week or so (I'm so done with watering, overseeding, and mowing). Hopefully we'll get it installed without any problems this weekend. Then we'll install new plants all over the yard and paint the new stucco walls. I'm going to buy new pots too. So, hopefully, by my birthday we'll have a nice pretty back yard. We spent Labor Day weekend painting our fencing. We went darker and painted it the house color. I really like it. It's a lot warmer and has less glare (which probably means that the color will absorb more heat, but hey).
The twins have their own rooms now and I've been buying furniture for them. Cheap furniture because I'm broke now. Griffin's room has blue furniture and a dinosaur theme. I got his bedding at Marshals and found the quilt at Homegoods. score! I need to find bedding for Kenna now. Her walls are yellow so I've been trying to find something that I like. The thing about kids bedding is that it's often made of really cheap material that looks bad in about a nanosecond. I'm on the hunt. But I did find both of them headboards, side tables, and toy boxes on clearance at Target. I need to buy a dresser for Griffin still.
The kids are doing just fine. They have been sort of wild lately. Must need to run around more or something. The twins are potty training. Kenna is doing amazingly well. She didn't wear a pull up last night. I have been fighting with her because I want her to use the potty since I don't trust her yet and she REFUSES. It turns into a scream fest. I just need to let her do her own thing and realize that she goes when she needs to. G is working on the potty thing but he doesn't seem to have as much awareness of his need to go. But he's been wearing his big boy underpants more frequently. Laney started school and is going through this "you're not the boss of me stage". I'm quite ready to rip her arms off. She's just so big and independent now.
I went to the rheumatoid arthritis doctor last week and it was a good visit. I really like the doctor. I got sick over the summer and my arthritis really flared again. Turns out I probably had Parvo. The human form of Parvo is Fifth disease and it can cause viral arthritis. Who knew? The upshot of the visit is that I'm renewing my dedication to taking my meds and hopefully I'll start feeling better again. I'm really tired of being tired. The fatigue of RA is really something.

Runnin' in the Rain

2010-08-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

What a busy day! While at breakfast the rumbles of thunder could be heard. A big slow monsoon storm descended on Tucson by late morning and stayed and rained most of the day. It smells wonderful out. That creosote smell is just so clean and fresh. The downside? No pool at the pool party. But we had a great time seeing everyone. It was a long haul out to Talia's house. She lives closer to the Sonoran Desert museum than she does to Oro Valley. It was hard to get the kids all geared up to leave in time to get to school. I booked it across the valley, but we were still a little late to class (and I carried the twins in most of the way). The church has a moms group and I must have made an impact carting two toddlers and leading a third across the commons. They gave me an extra pack of tissues. All my kids were really great today (even when occasionally they were really tired or really 2). Griffin is just the sweetest little guy. And Kenna is becoming such a ham bone. We went to a school function tonight as a family and left the kids in the daycare while we went to the presentation. Griffin freaked out that I was going, but when we came back we found them all having a great time. The ladies all seemed to be very entertained by Kenna. She was just a pistol tonight. Must have been the fishy crackers or something.
Delaney carefully wrapped a fake rose in tissue paper and gave me a special "present" today. It was just sweet. On the way out of school, she ran up to a new friend "just to give her a hug goodbye". All in all (disregarding the occasional freak out), she has been really sweet and helpful lately. Just in time for the twins to get their toddler on. I guess God knew that if they all three were awful at once, I'd have to rip someone's arms off.
So, even though we had a few "moments", it was a really good day. Kenna told me "goodnight mommy, I love you" too. I've had lots of little kisses and hugs, special conversations while we practiced pooping on the potty (both twins! whoo hoo!), received various things wrapped in crumpled tissue, and marveled at all the bugs that surround a light at night in Tucson. Mommy bliss.

School Days

2010-08-25T21:10:00.001-07:00

We're back in the swing of things again and every day is full of activities. Yesterday, all of the kids went to the dentist. Laney looked like such a big girl in her chair and she did the full cleaning this time. Griffin and Kenna wowed them with their complete willingness to sit in the chair, wear the sunglasses (are you kidding me? of course they would!), and be generally poked and prodded. The results of our visit? Dental health excellent, keep up the good work. And oh yeah, they will all need orthodontia for their various bite problems. The girls both have signs of a cross bite and all have narrow palettes. I guess I should start an orthodontia fund now.
Today we went back to dance class and gymnastics. Kenna went to dance, G was supposed to do gymnastics at the same time and then Laney started a gymnastics class. Kenna LOVED dance class and I could tell she was paying attention really well. She's so cute and tiny in her little outfit. Griffin outright refused to be left in the gymnastics class. No freakin' way. So we'll see. He might not start an activity until later in life... And Laney of course jumped right to it, though I was sort of wishing she was still in dance when I saw the TAP SHOES. OMG. Very few things are as cute as toddlers in tap shoes. I took picts of Kenna dancing but then my camera ran out of juice, so. Bad mom. After dance we high tailed it home, shoved some food in everyone and got back in the car to go to school.
Laney walked in to her room and quite literally did not spare me a second look or even tell me good bye. We walked past a little girl and her mother who were having a major showdown over whether she would enter the building. The little girl won. I felt bad for her mom.
I took the twins home and put them to bed (eventually), then went to the grocery store and picked Laney up again. She returned to me a little grouchy about not going out on the playground today (it was hot and they were busy). She made an enormous princess hat and a robin hood hat. The princess hat is quite literally as big as Kenna. If I ever get my camera charged, I'll take a picture!!
Both of our outings started with massive drama. Kenna is having a big 2 moment and decided to fight with me at the most inopportune times. She doesn't want to pee on the potty when asked (say, right before we go somewhere in the car) and has a shrieking hissy if I suggest a pull up. She's actually doing quite well with the potty training though. Most days. I have days when I think, well she's got it! And then she pees on the lego table or something.
Laney told me tonight that she wanted Aunt Diane to be her mother. She thought it would be a lot better than having me. I'm too bossy. Tomorrow is our first play group since we've been back--and it's a pool party in Avra valley, which we must attend with a potluck treat and then leave on time to take Laney to school. Not sure if this is going to work well. Anyway, must go shave my bikini line and pass out now.

Hello, Blog, it's been awhile

2010-08-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

My last post left us with soggy weather in June. I can't believe that I didn't post the rest of the summer! It's been a busy summer and doing techie stuff just didn't figure highly on my to do list I guess. Here's a short summary of the summer:
We went cruising on the river in Post Falls right before the 4th and then did dinner and dancing to celebrate is one Lynda and Curtiss' 25th wedding anniversary and Curt's 50th birthday. We had a great time and I danced all night to the groove beats of PJ Destiny and his one man band--which was composed of two people since his son Fred came along as backup. The sun finally came out (as per usual) immediately after the 4th of July. We spent the 4th in Sandpoint. I went to the Forrell (no, I don't know how to spell it)/Smith picnic. It had been quite a few years since I went last. The place was just swimming with the Brickers and similar clans. I think there were very few people I recognized in the crowd. Isn't it funny how the older people still look the same after 20 years? I guess the major differences between 50 and 70 aren't as huge as between say 5 and 25! The twins had a great time playing there with the other kids. Laney didn't come with me. I went with Mom and Dad (because I'm the good daughter ;-). After that reunion picnic we continued on to Joyce and John's for another picnic. Then we went home and passed out so the kids didn't do any fireworks this year.
Once the sun came out, things got rockin' and rollin' for summer. We worked on the house and the yard. I collected yardsale furniture and did my magic spray painting. Our little house has the brightest colored furniture ever. Our dining table is apple green and our bedroom furniture is a dark aqua.
After the 4th, we went camping at Sam Owen's on Pend Oreille lake outside of Sandpoint. We originally intended to stay at Springy Point, but it was full. It all turned out pretty well with the exception of extremely predatory deer that ransacked our camp and ate a bunch of stuff. Andy and Jenny visited with us several times and swam. They brought their boat over one of the days and Laney went for her first boat ride and went tubing. Of all the kids that went, which included all of the older boys who are about 6, only Laney was brave enough to do it and just loved it. The best part of camping for the kids was riding bikes on the road. Kenna can't reach the pedals on a trike so she does it Flintstone style. She looks just like those lizards that run on their hind legs. She's completely fearless and took off down the hill once. She must have hit about 20 mph before she steered into the bank. I almost had a heart attack when I saw her start down. I started running and expected to find her broken at the bottom. And there she was, smiling away on the side. Griffin can pedal--the pink and purple trike. He 4x4'd through the forest, he rode on the road, he would not stop. All the kids went for a long bike ride and Laney and Griffin just pedaled away. Kenna walked instead of trying to push that distance.
The weekend after camping, we went up to Priest Lake to visit Dana and Jeff at their vacation rental. They had also rented a boat for the weekend and we went all the way up to the upper lake. I haven't been boating in about a decade. It was fun even though Griffin peed on the boat a couple times.
At the end of July, we had Art on the Green and my 20 year high school reunion. It was awesome to see my old high school friends, less awesome to see the people who annoyed me then and still annoy me. I guess a typical reunion. Art of the Green was a little too brief for me. Charles and I took the kids and he was done before we made half of the loop. Next year we'll do things a little different...
After that we got the house ready for the big party. We had a big birthday bash for my sister's 40th birthday. Charles even made a dance floor and we hung lanterns made of glass jars from the trees. I'd say that we had about 50 people or so. I think there were 21 kids there. I warned the neighbors ahead of time thank goodness.
After a very busy summer we headed home to Arizona. We got back on Wednesday it's been go go go ever since. We bought new beds for the twins on Thursday. No more baby beds. Sigh. Friday we went to school to meet Laney's new preschool teacher. Who is AWESOME. I was so excited by her description of the year she plans that I was almost ready to go to preschool myself. Friday night Laney went to Leah's on an official sleep over and I went to sorority. It was so good to see my sorority sisters after such a long time. I'm going to miss those who will be leaving this fall. Today we cleaned up the old office and broke down the crib and pack-n-play before the beds were delivered. I must say that it is so strange to see the beds in those rooms. Sigh. A new era starts and we leave babyhood behind. Unless we have another baby that is... ;-)

Living the Soggy Life

2010-06-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

Oh the rain. It rains rains rains. I looked out at the grey sky and the pooling backyard and thought "oh yeah, I remember now why I didn't like the weather here". On the other hand, you really really appreciate sunshine when it does make an appearance. In all fairness, even the normal Idahoans are starting to get really annoyed with the weather. Sun broke through today and we were outside. Griffin figured out how to climb the tree with Laney. I'm sure that Kenna isn't far behind. He had a couple mad dangling episodes, but all in all a successful first tree climb. They all woke up at 5:30 this morning because K woke up and started yelling. We moved the twins into their big kid beds on Father's day. Kenna's is so tall that she has no hope of climbing into it on her own. Griffin got a captain's bed and he was soooo excited about it all. He loves going to bed in his big boy bed. I think his excitement at getting a bed totally made Charles father's day (which up to that point had been quite literally crappy). He just beamed.
Father's day was wet and cold. We went to the hardware store together in the morning to pick up the BBQ we bought for Dad. Charles was grouchy. Then he drove the BBQ home in the truck and I stayed at Lowes so that I could drink some coffee (since I still don't have a coffee pot!!) and the kids could ride the lawnmowers in the exit foyer. Griffin gets really excited now when he sees we're at Lowes, since his newest love is pretending to drive lawn tractors. The girls get in on it too. Charles dumped the bbq over on the ride home and it's a little tweaked but ok. Then he got home and decided to fix a very majorly blocked toilet (a plunger was on the shopping list). The toilet overflowed and made a massive gross mess and he paniced and tried to clean up --which led to a massive quantity of filthy towels in the bathtub, a toilet brush in the sink (no I don't understand why), tracked excrement water all over and of course, a filthy toilet. I came home with the kids and immediately started cleaning. It was just that kind of day.
We got the trim completed in the kids rooms and part of the doors in the hall. So we were able to get their furniture into their rooms and that was nice. That evening we had dinner at Mom and Dad's and I grilled the burgers. I haven't grilled burgers in a long time and we got the less lean burger. It was the towering inferno, but they were tasty.
My furniture refinishing is coming right along. I've got the dresser for Charles almost finished, the dining table almost finished, a chair almost done (including recovering the seat), a table for the girls' room done, and a few other things started. All in very bright colors. I don't know what it is, but I'm tired of brown. Anything brown. So I have a lime green dining table and a dark aqua chair and dresser for the bedroom. And a hot pink table for the girls room. I guess I'm treating this house as a play house and coloring things appropriately. It's really fun. I wish I'd done the before pictures. Darn it. Oh well. I'll get picts posted eventually.

The Shack is Shakin'

2010-06-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, finally back in business with internet access again. I can't ever connect to my parents wireless. It's been busy busy. We moved in to the house on Sunday, though it's still in a work in progress state. I have a feeling that it will be that way for a while. I went on a furniture buying spree and need to start refinishing things, but it was raining and cold all week. We had to turn the heat on and guess what? That smell got worse. So we live in a stinky house and it bugs the crap out of me, but I guess eventually it will improve.
The kids are loving it here (mostly--except the rain thing). Laney biked over to my parents house earlier in the week and was super proud of herself. All three blocks. They've been biking and running around in the yard. Or they did anyway until the weather went crappy and we filled the garage with furniture. They were mad about that one. G thinks we should bring his trike in and he could ride inside (technically true). He hauled it in himself this evening and was furious when we sent it back outside.
I pruned the trees out front this afternoon since we had a break in the weather. The branches were so low over the sidewalks that you had to duck and still got wet every time you went down the walk.
Tomorrow we paint and install trim. And take back a blind to have it recut so that we can finally stop living in a fish bowl. I didn't realize how bad it was until I came home later on Wednesday night. You can see everything in the house from the street.
I need to get some sort of furniture (like a table or something!) that allows me to sit more comfortably while I use the computer. My back is killing me. So I'll go now and try to post more this weekend.

Laying Seige to the Shackteau

2010-06-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty good trip up to Idaho. The weather was decent and the kids were good. It was tiring of course, but all in all not too bad. It was crazy getting things ready to go and honestly, our packing job was such a mess I have no idea where anything is.
But the real news happened when we were about an hour outside of Missoula. I called our agent because she hadn't dropped of the key the day before. Turns out that was because the woman was still in our house. We did a rent back to her for a couple days because she said that she needed some extra time. I guess she decided she needed more. We tried everything to get her removed, but the cops couldn't do it because they said it was a "paperwork issue" and not trespass and since she had been our renter, technically rental law would apply. It was amazingly irritating. Eventually, after lots of aggravation she had to pay us an extra $60 and be out by noon today. Whoopee. The house was a complete sty and the yard hadn't been weeded or mowed since we did the contract. She took our curtains but left her junk. And she padlocked both back gates and did not leave keys. We're behind on our renovation schedule and Charles leaves tomorrow. When we finally got possession, we went at it. Changed the locks, started prepping to paint, and took down the awful curtains. We made an extremely spendy trip to Lowe's, got the Uhaul unloaded, took down one giant ceiling fan and ripped up the carpet. All of it in the entire house. It was DISGUSTING. Like one of the grossest jobs ever. Both her dog and cat have continuously peed all over it, some of it very very recently. Like today. Huge wet stains in the subfloor. Dana, Jeff, and Dad helped unload the Lowe's booty and we all toasted the new house with champagne. I'm taking picts, just didn't download today.

On the Sea of Pee

2010-05-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

I am inundated in excrement. Potty training has officially begun and it was not my idea AT ALL. But this is what they are wanting to do, so I'm going with it. Griffin has greeted me twice this week with a crappy diaper in his hand when I go to get them in the morning. Both twins strip their diapers and clothes off at every single opportunity. Griffin pees in the pool--like those fountains with the boy peeing. Yeah. He runs up to the edge of the pool and pees into it. He also pees on the floors. And he took a crap on the kool-dek today. I'm not kidding. Kenna mostly does little tinkles every once in a while, but she's got a lot more control and we go to the potty regularly. She insists on going to the potty. A lot. But mostly doesn't do anything there. I think she just likes my undivided attention. To add to the excitement, Laney is working on not wearing a pull up to bed anymore. Occasionally that has been resulting in laundry.
But enough about body functions, right? We're working on all the logistics of moving. Like lighting a fire under the butts of the mortgage people and figuring out how to find a notary. We're doing something new--both houses will be closing via mail. So I sign everything and mail it off. Weird. I've got lots and lots of ideas for the new house. I think Charles is starting to get freaked out. But I did set a budget and plan to stick to it. It's actually sort of fun to figure out how to do everything I want to do within that boundary. Hello Craigslist! And family basements. I'm feeling really creative. Hopefully my energy level stays up with my plans. I realized today that we have a lot of parties this summer. The twins birthday, Brianna's graduation, Lynda and Curt's anniversary/birthday party, Dana's birthday party and family reunion. And Charles' birthday too, but he refuses to celebrate it. Fun fun fun!

The Shackteau

2010-05-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

I'm returned from the frozen north and I've seen our new house. We decided to call it the Shackteau. Let's just say that when you say "I'm going to my second home for the summer" or something like it, it conjures an idea that is in no way in keeping with the reality of our humble house. The house was in sort of poor condition, but then again it is almost 20 years old. It has lots of potential to be really cute one day. The current owners wouldn't leave and I felt weird taking pictures of them and their stuff, so I don't really have many pictures. I am really excited to see the house empty. I'm sure it will seem really different. It is certainly packed to the gills right now. The current owner has two room mates. And a shizhzou (?) dog. That isn't potty trained yet. I'll be plenty busy for the next few summers with home improvements. Which is actually kind of cool with me. I think it will be fun.
Hmm. What else to say? We have fruit trees and raspberry and strawberry bushes. And a two story building in the backyard that looks a little like a grain silo from the end.
The weather in Idaho was (and still is) nasty. Cold and wet. In general, it was so nice to have a few days off. I did my own thing and went shopping at thrift stores, had coffee, that sort of thing. We also went out to dinner at the White House on Friday night and that was great. We went to Enoteca for a wine tasting first. It will be nice to get up there for the summer.

Kenna on the Mend

2010-04-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Kenna is officially on the mend. We started antibiotics yesterday and she's much better this morning. Our trip to Target was a nightmare. I had two kids running away from me up and down the aisles and a sick one clinging to me. It was Laney's turn to be a troublemaker on that trip. On the up side, they have all been much better about playing together and sharing lately. We haven't had a major biting incident in a while. This may be because K has been to sick to be feisty. I'm not sure.
I'm heading out tomorrow for Idaho. Charles comes home tonight. I think we're going to have tag team parenting for the next week or so. Once I get back, we'll really need to start rockin' and rollin' on the preparation to go to Idaho at the end of the month.
Time to get my kiddos dressed and head to dance class. No swimming today. I think we still need to arrange to finish Kenna's lessons and do another couple days with the G-man. I wish my camera took little videos too. It's pretty cool to see them swim.

Mondays

2010-04-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

What a Monday. Charles left at 4ish this morning. Kenna woke up screaming at 5. She and I "slept" in my bed for a few hours. She's had a fever for about 4 days. We were supposed to do their clothed swim tests today and since K had a fever she had to skip it. Griffin still won't roll. Little bugger. We all went to Costco after swimming and had lunch afterwards. Griffin has been feeling his two-ness coming on lately, so he was cute and sweet until he wasn't. He stuffed his mouth with pizza and chewed it in to a glutinous mass then drank some pink lemonade to make a slurry and started spitting it out. I was not amused. I took away his drink. So he spit everything in his mouth all over me. So I took away the pizza and he had a massive hissy hissy fit in the middle of the Costco cafeteria wherein he tried to fish his pizza plate out of the garbage can and snagged a finger and a lady came and freed him. I carried him bodily to the car since he refused to walk. He fought getting in to the car seat and screamed for the first 10 minutes of the trip home. Then he passed out. They all took a nice long nap, but when I got the twins up Kenna was burning up. I took her temp and my thermometer read 104. So I freaked out. Then we all went to the dr in a frenzy and Kenna of course was about 100 by then. They hooked this weird bag to her to catch her pee. Their initial testing indicated that there might be a urinary tract infection but they are sending the specimin out to the lab tomorrow. So we may or may not make a trip to the pharmacy tomorrow. I'm going to go have a glass of wine now.

Picts of the House

2010-04-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to need to give the Idaho house a name so that we can refer to it easily. Any ideas? I received pictures courtesy of Michelle (as neighborhood stalker I hear).

Isn't the tree pretty? Sadly, we'll probably never live there while it is in bloom, but others can enjoy it. I hadn't seen detailed photos of the front yard (or really anything else) yet, so these were sort of a suprise. Not sure I'm completely on board with the green trim detail on the house.

Ok. I need to put the camera battery in and take some pictures of the kids. They've made a nest of my couch cushions and are playing with a singing letter thing. So cute. I love it when they are sweet and play nicely together. They aren't always the spawn of the devil. I've been a slacker on the picture taking for a while now. Time to get back in gear.

Swimmin' and Stuff

2010-04-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

We're in week three of swim lessons and I'm getting a little tired of it. I'd hoped to complete the refresher in two weeks but Griffin won't do his roll. It's cute to watch them though. The twins started out with the attitude that we were definitely trying to kill them and now they take a running jump into Pam's arms. They also tell her that they want to go swim to the bar a lot. I got in and swam with all of them last week and it was fun. I'm not completely sure how I'll manage to swim with the twins though. Laney did her swim test fully clothed last week and I went all out this time (I didn't want to bother with wet shoes and the like last year). She wore jeans, long sleeves and heavy tennis shoes. It was hard work but she did it. Over the weekend we were working in the yard and in and out of the house. I left the kids inside, went outside quickly, came back in and noticed Kenna was missing. I found her outside by the pool! She must have slipped out behind me when I went back inside. I had that little heart attack moment mom's get but then I was really glad that we've invested in the lessons. Hopefully the pool will heat up and we'll be able to swim in it before we go to Idaho. I'm determined that next year we'll invest in a pool heater. If we don't, we'll never swim in the pool since we'll be gone over the summer.
Charles went to school with Laney yesterday to do their Donuts with Dad day. Sounds like he had fun. Oddly Laney didn't seem to have a lot to say about it. Then again, she never really has much to say about school. I try to get her to tell me about it, but nope.
I met with a landscaper again today to get a bid to remove our rocks from the back yard. We're replacing it all with rock that matches the front. It was a little awkward since he didn't speak English. I felt sort of bad that I didn't know Spanish.

Home Sweet Homes

2010-04-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

We had our offer accepted on a completely different house. Wednesday I sent my parents out to see a house about 4 blocks from their house. It's a little rancher with a big yard, a separate building for an office and even a hot tub (that leaks). Our offer was a go by Friday afternoon. So now I'm buying a house and I'm sort of freaked out by it all. You know how you have ideas and then the reality is sort of scary? I hope this whole idea of spending summers in Idaho works out...Yeah. But anyway, we're excited about it. I'm looking forward to seeing it! Yes, I bought a house I haven't seen. I'm making plans to go up to Idaho for the inspection.
The kids are doing fine. We're spending lots of time in the backyard playing in the dirt piles and generally hanging out. The weather has been beautiful. It's really too bad that I'm so utterly miserable with allergies. I have to go do the shots this fall I think. I don't want to waste another gorgeous spring. All the kids are finishing up their refresher swim lessons so we'll be able to swim this summer. I'm really wishing that our pool is heated. Maybe next year.
The big news of the day is that Kenna has joined the potty crowd. She went on the potty twice this morning. Due to taking off her diaper and running naked through the house.
Laney is swearing lately and part of me wants to laugh, part of me is horrified. Especially because I know exactly where each little phrase originates and I can't blame her father for all of them. Griffin is going to be 2 soon and you can certainly tell. He's been throwing the occasional hissy fit. Most of the time he's a sweet bean though.

I hate buying houses

2010-04-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

I'm liking the paint...and you can see it so well now that the house is naked and treeless. I'm feeling peevish this afternoon because, as somewhat suspected, the realtor selling the house we want to buy was ignoring us as long as possible so that he could fish for additional offers. I'm not inclined to change our offer and I now have a number at the bank so that I can call and complain about him. What a jerk. So who knows if we will end up with this house or not. The good part is that I'm not emotionally tied to the house, so it's still just a transaction to me. The downside is that we're getting closer to summer and I'd like to have things resolved.

Home Improvement?

2010-04-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

We are experiencing a whirlwind of spending activity. Somehow I managed to schedule a house painting, a landscaping tree removal and pruning, and a patio removal all into the same week. We removed the enormous tree in front of our house and I'm not sure that it was the best idea. It's so bare and bright out there now. Sadness. However, I will not get a call in August that monsoon has caused our enormous mesquite to crash over into our house. And I will not be picking up the 7 thousand pods it drops in August (by hand because you can't rake or blow them effectively). So there you go. So long shade tree. On the other hand, removing the tree means that you can see the house now and it will have a brand new spankin' paint job by the end of the week. We're living inside the masked window bubble right now and I hear them spraying, but have no idea how it looks. And I'm afraid to open a door and get sprayed. So a big suprise waits at the end of the day.
We also put in an offer on a house in Idaho this week and that has added to the chaos. It's a little strange to be buying a house that I've never seen, but hopefully all will go well.
We had a really nice Easter. Went to church with Olive and Don at St. Pius across town, then we had everyone over for dinner at our house. The lamb was good, but a little too done for my taste. The coconut cake was AWESOME. A nice time was had by all.

Bunny Butt Cupcakes

2010-04-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right. Bunny butts. I made cupcakes with a little white icing in the center and then piped green grass around it, then I placed mini marshmallows covered in nonpareils and flattened marshmallows with pieces of cut jelly beans on them for feet. So the overall effect is the business end of the bunny going down the bunny hole in the grass. My camera battery is done and the cupcakes are history, so visualize it in your head.
We had a very successful play date at the park today. Hunted easter eggs and ate treats, played in the sand, etc. It was particularly fun because we had three dads in attendance today. Eric had the day off (weird. who gets good friday anymore?), Curtis is home while Earlee takes care of their new baby and Tony is staying at home while Talia is in school until he goes back to Iraq. Because he is a "military security contractor" or some bs title when he's working. We know it as "mercenary". He guards people and convoys in Iraq. So basically, he's a stay at home dad and then he goes to work and shoots people. Which seems sort of funny (except for the shooting people part). Kids had a blast and I ran in to a nanny who we've met various places.
Audrey is super super nice and the kids she watches are really cute--just a bit younger than mine. We've met casually several times. She thinks my name is Lisa. When I realized that is what she thought, she'd called me Lisa a couple of times and then I felt bad about correcting her. So there you are. I have her email address, so I'm thinking of sending her an email to invite her to a playdate and hoping she'll figure out the name thing without my pointing it out. I just feel weird about it. I just personally have a major nerosis about names and am always afraid I'm going to get it wrong (because I do. All the time. I have a really really hard time remembering people and names). I hate to tell others that they are. My own personal brand of crazy.
Two posts. One day. April is a new month.

Where did March Go?

2010-04-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

So I seem to have completely skipped March blogging. What can I say? We spent the first two weeks of March in Idaho for Grandma's funeral. It was great to see Amanda and her family and Josh, even though it was a sad way to do it. The night of Grandma's funeral we all really had a party and there were a lot of puking men the next day. Which makes you wonder, doesn't it? Either the girls were more moderate in their consumption (hello motherhood) or we just hold our drink better (hello motherhood ha ha). While in Idaho we started our house search in earnest and missed out on two great potentials. I was all set to buy one and was waiting for Charles to get back from Colorado to show it to him and they accepted an offer. We're looking in the hottest part of the market I guess--homes that are affordable to first time buyers. Right now we're waiting to hear about a how that went into foreclosure on Mom's street. It would be great, but only if we can get it for our price range. It's large and has a big lot but otherwise doesn't have a tremendous amount to recommend it. It's got potential. Crossing fingers.
Back in Tucson, I've been working on refinancing our house, getting financing for a second house, getting our house painted, hiring landscapers to prune and remove trees, going to the rheumatologist, and our general life living stuff like school and playgroups. We're going to cook Easter dinner this weekend so I have lots to do there. I also made bunny butt cupcakes last night for playgroup and I'll post about them tomorrow. I think my camera needs to be charged. I should go do that now so that I'm ready for playgroup picts. My kids are fiends for the egg hunt.

Rain Rain Go Away

2010-02-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

Ok. I'm done with the rain thing. I don't think it has ever rained this much since I've lived here. It's like being in Idaho--with the same temperatures. Last week we had a couple days at 70 and then pfft. back to 50 and pouding rain.
We were all a little stir crazy by the end of the day today so we played run from the ticklemonster (I walk around threatening to tickle and they run screaming around and around the house) and then we played "Dinosaur and Bobcat" (a perennial, though inexplicable favorite), then we played some hide and seek. I just bust up laughing every time we play hide and seek because Laney is the worst hider in the world. I say "ready or not" and she says "I'm here mom!"
The twins are both talking (Kenna with more success than G) more and more. Trying out lots of new words every day. Kenna is working on her panting kitty impression. Griffin loves to play a puppy. Yesterday Laney threw a toy for him and he crawled over to fetch it, picked it up in his mouth, and then he ran away with it. He's got the most realistic puppy impression ever.
We went visiting yesterday. First to Olive and Don's and then to Debbie's. The girls like Prince but Griffin thought he was definitely not good. Not good at all. They all had fun and ate about a pound of animal crackers. Debbie and David were working on their backyard. They are in the process of putting in a pool. Angelica was getting her senior picts done.
I guess the big news is that we're working on house hunting in Idaho. Hopefully we'll be able to buy a second home up there some time this spring. We've decided to sacrifice buying a different home here and buy a second there instead. We'll just have to make do in this one. I'm excited about the prospect of having our own house up there. The first round of home tours didn't go very well, but Dad is going to go look at another one tomorrow.

Feb's Got the Bad Ju Ju

2010-02-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

February needs to be over now because it obviously has bad ju ju. We've been beset by illness the whole month and I'm sick of sickness. Mom and Dad were here last week and we had a good time in between being sick (and the rain!). We managed to get strep throat, ear infections, food poisoning in the 11 days that they were here.
Kenna is still a little sick and I'm a bit concerned. Today she seemed like she was pulling out of the funk though so hopefully she's on the mend. She bit Griffin twice and I'm not sure she's bitten him once all week.
Dad went home and had a stroke. I got the call at 1:30 in the morning. He felt it coming on and took aspirin though so that helped. Quit smoking Dad. Please!!
I went to the dr the day that they flew out because I've been having a lot of pain in my feet (and pain in my knees, hands, wrists and hips). Got the call back today that I have rheumatoid arthritis. I was sort of wigged out about the prospect earlier in the week after I came home and looked it up. Turns out that it is the number 1 cause of people being on permanent disability. neat, huh? I've decided that I'm going to buy a piano. I've put off buying one for a long long time since I didn't really have a place for it, but you know, who knows what time will bring now and if I want to play I need to get on it now.
Oh yeah, I also got the questionaire from my high school reunion. What have I been doing the last 20 years? What did I do in high school? I have no idea.
Onward. God hates a coward.

Congratulations! It's a Stone.

2010-01-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, Charles woke up sick. He was up about 5:30 and I thought at first he'd acquired Laney's tummy bug from last week. By 6 I was up with him and decided to take a shower since he seemed to be getting worse (good thinking on my part). By 6:30 he was literally rolling around on the floor. He told me that the pain was bad in the right lower side of his abdomen, so I thought he might be having appendicitis. So I called Diane, woke the kids up, grabbed them clothes and diapers and threw everyone in the car. Charles was actually puking by this point so he got a bucket too. What I didn't have? A charged cell phone, gas in the car, shoes for the kids or underwear for Laney. I ran yellow/red lights about three times on the way to the hospital, once right in front of a cop. Laney thought the sudden acceleration through the light was awesome (we did the other two on the way to the hospital). Sadly, during my husband's excruciating ordeal, I had to stop for gas after dropping the kids off since I had NONE. I was starting to envision what it would be like to run out of gas 2 miles from the hospital with no cell phone. When we got there, Charles walked in to the waiting room and sort of collapsed on the floor in pain while I tried to get someone to help him. I realize that they are used to these sorts of things, but it would be nice if they had at least some sort of urgency in helping you get care. They took Charles back and I went to park the car, by the time I got back he'd already been seen by the dr. and diagnosed with kidney stones. As painful as it was, I was glad that was it and we didn't have to do surgery. They morphined him up and it took the edge off. They released him at about 10:30 or so and I took him home then went to get drugs and kids. His second narcotics r/x in a month. Oh, and did I mention that we were in the midst of the biggest storm Arizona has had in 17 years? I was wondering if our tree in the front yard would come down and finish off the day in a super special way. It's still standing though.
We watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang last night and Laney stayed up too late. I haven't seen that movie since I was about 8. Laney slept with us and hogged the bed all night. On the up side, my shoulder quit hurting. I think it must have been dislocated. On Monday night I woke up and it sort of slid and popped. Tuesday it was super painful when I let my arm relax but it's pretty good now.

Monsters Taste Like Beans

2010-01-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

So Laney woke up hungry today and told me she would eat monsters because monsters taste like beans, but Daddy had pumed them all (aka shot them). She had cereal for breakfast instead. She's been sick for about a week and needs to make up for it now I guess. Had a little tummy bug and her first bout ever of the runs. That's right. Ever. It is so hard to know whether she's really sick or not all the time since she tells me things like "I can't get my carseat straps on because I'm sick" or "I need to eat cheetos because my skin is sick" or whatever. She's inherited her father's hypochondria and usually has an iron constitution. I don't always take her seriously when she tells me she is sick. So Saturday night she said she was, after drinking two glasses of strawberry milk, and I asked if she was ready to go upstairs. Before we even got going she puked violently all over the kitchen floor. Charles bathed her and I got to clean up.
Which leads to the other piece of news. I've injured my shoulder (repeatedly since having children) and something is really wrong now. I think I'm going to have to cave in and go to the dr. I had to use my left hand to mop and that hurt my hand so now I have a sore hand and hurt shoulder. I'm starting to wonder what the heck is wrong with me that all of my tendons and whatnot are hurting (feet, knees and hips hurting too lately). Ok, Laney might have got some hypochondria from me too. But really. My ability to ignore the pain is starting to get stretched.
Griffin and Kenna are as feisty as ever. More words every day and a pronounced interest in the potty.

Booger Monster

2010-01-07T20:48:00.001-08:00

I was playing with the kids and Laney told me that I could be the booger monster and she would be the princess. I'm so flattered. Just thought I'd share that.
So if you read the previous post and it sounded like I was suicidal or something, it was late at night and I was tired when I wrote it so maybe it was more bitter than intended. I'm ok. Honest. It's just nice to vent about it every once in a while when I'm feeling stressed. This week has been a major improvement and we're all ok.
Today I took the twins to their first gymnastics class and it was fun but hard work for me. And hard work for the instructor who had to take one of them since it was a mommy and me sort of thing. I'll be getting my money's worth there! It was totally up Kenna's alley. She was the demo kid and loved everything, somesaults, handstands (all assisted of course), walking the balance beam and running down the trampoline. G also thought it was fun, even when I accidentally whacked his head on a bar. I'm a good mom like that! We went from there to have coffee at B&N with Richelle and terrorize their kids department. All in all a good day out. I was suprised that nap time didn't last longer since we were so active in the morning and they were both up last night. Griffin woke up at about 1:45 and didn't go back to sleep until about 3:30. He woke K up with the first round of protest and so I couldn't sneak him out. I felt so bad for Kenna because I'd already picked him up when she stood up and said "Momma uppy!"since I couldn't really get her too. So I held him and hugged and patted K over the rail until she was ready to lay back down. She's a great sleeper. G on the other hand... we went round and round for quite some time. He likes to get in bed with me, snuggle, then get a second wind and start singing and whacking daddy. Stinker.
We played play dough again this afternoon. Play dough gets amazingly gross and stain causing if you get it wet. Do not, I repeat, do not get it wet! Yuck.
This evening I went out and left Charles to do bathtime and bed on his own (I haven't got the report yet but it seems like things went well). I had to do my stint at sorority city council. Which was interesting.

New Year, Same Stuff

2010-01-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

So it is a little weird that we started this year similarly to 2009--Charles unable to walk and in a cast. Sigh. I was holding it together pretty well through Christmas but by the two week mark without a break I was starting to lose my mind. I had to give myself a timeout a few times before I smacked the face off of one of my children. It's not the taking off the diaper and throwing your poop all over the floor, it's not getting into the pantry REPEATEDLY and dumping the contents all over other portions of the house, it's not the sassy attitude and unwillingness to take a nap "actually". It's the screaming. Especially when they all scream, cry and hang on me at once. I just can't take the noise. It's like it short circuits my brain or something. But thank god, Christmas break is over now and we're back to our old routine and that helps a lot.
I'm starting to plan a vacation for myself. I've decided that once Charles gets well again, I'm going somewhere else. Without any of them. I don't know where yet. I think I made this same resolution last year and never did it. This year will be different! I just have to figure out what I want to do...
So on to 2010. Hopefully it is a year that brings completely healed legs!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-26T20:19:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to all! We had a nice Christmas and now I'm sitting here in the messy aftermath. Charles and I stayed up late doing the Santa thing. We even set up the train tracks on the train table and it was really fun. When the kids finally got up in the morning (I was growing impatient! They slept in on the only day that I didn't want to!), Griffin was just thrilled to see it all laid out below. They were all excited to go downstairs and see what Santa brought We opened presents and had breakfast and I think that was one of the best parts of my day. We had breakfast in the dining room and the kids didn't have their booster chairs. I sat there looking at my family in the sunshine--Kenna and Griffin sat across the table from me on their own and I could just see Kenna's eyes. Seeing their little faces around my table was just the best. I was really proud of my breakfast too, since I made my own bread just like my Mom always did. Cinnamon swirled wreath bread, scrambled eggs and sliced oranges. Next year, when Charles can walk, we'll have frittata like his dad always used to make. Later, we played with toys and hung out. Last night, walking in after dinner at Debbie's carrying sleeping babies back into my messy toy strewn house I was struck by how my house smelled like Christmas and it was just such a nice feeling to be coming home with my family on Christmas day. I guess it must be the result of baking the bread, but my house just smelled like home always used to smell when we would come home from my Grandma's.
Today I had the traditional day after Christmas. I laid around and did close to nothing (except read a book). I still had to do all the mom stuff and the waiting on Charles stuff, but I kept it to a minimum ;-) I did kick some of the toys under the tree before the pizza guy came. I also ate too much junk food. This is all working up to the traditional feeling gross and needing to eat better and clean everything by New Years day to start fresh again. What can I say? I'm a traditionalist!

Out with the Old Hardware

2009-12-18T19:32:00.000-08:00

Hi all. Yeah, I know I've not been writing but it has been a busy month. When I realize that I haven't blogged in a while then it gets harder to do it because there is so much to say. Charles had his surgery today and it went well. I've been busy like crazy and I'm feeling beat tonight so I'm not going to write much. Took twins to dr. yesterday for their 18 month checkup and K is growing! She's now in the 25% for height. Yea Kenna! Still in 5% for weight though. Griffin has a sinus infection again but I forgot to give him his meds today since I wasn't home this morning. The twins are talking more and more. The dr. asked me how many words they say and I have to tell you that I just had no idea. I remember that with Laney I was so involved in each milestone and now the babies I feel like, whatever that's fine. My guestimate on words? about 15 for G and 20 for K. Depends on criteria for counting. They both understand everything you say however. G told me this week twice when I got him in the morning that he'd pooped (and he had). The second time he told me that he "poo poo nigh nigh". On the way home today from the store (he and I went to get C's r/x together since the boy freaks out when his momma leaves and I took pity on my mother in law) he told me that he was going nigh nigh. bye. and fell asleep. aw. Kenna says a lot more than Griffin does and it's super clear. She's also starting to make little sentences with verbs. "Fro Ball" and that sort of thing.
I went through my pictures today for our playgroup dvd and just can't believe how much they have all changed this year. Wow. I didn't think Laney had changed all that much but she really has. I've got to go and get some sleep since I'm dragging butt.

Animal House

2009-12-01T21:16:00.000-08:00

My poor son is getting bit by everyone. His older sister, his younger sister. They are little animals and he's so sweet (most of the time). Kenna bit him at least three times today and then Laney bit him too. Luckily the girls are taking some cues from him occasionally and giving him some love too. The twins were so cute tonight while I was making dinner. Griffin hugged Kenna. He's also a kisser, but you have to watch out for the tongue...
Kenna was grouchy all day today and I'm not sure why. She's been drinking an incredible amount of liquids lately and is always thirsty. She also removed her diaper in a rage tonight. So I asked her if she wanted to go sit on the potty and she ran in to do it (!). She sat there very pleased with herself until Griffin pushed her in.
Hmm. What else is going on? The tree is getting raided at an astonishing rate. Somehow G got hold of a glass ornament ball and was trying to eat part of it. I let them walk in to pick up Laney at school today and it was like herding cats. Thought we might try it out, but I don't think it's any easier.
I'm very close to getting the Christmas shopping finished though I need to get nieces and nephews presents. Need ideas... I've been going a little crazy with Christmas shopping I think. I need to wrap things and figure out what I've bought. So I'm probably getting carried away. But it is so much FUN!! I bought G a train table today. Which takes up massive floor space, but I think all of the kids will enjoy it. And I'll be able to pick up trains as well as kitchen crap. Yeah, there is a downside to everything. Practical me says to return some of it. Xmas me is getting excited for Christmas morning. I'm not sure who will win. I haven't been this excited about a Christmas since I was actually a kid. I'm going to start wrapping tomorrow.

Ho Ho Holy Crap that's a Big Tree

2009-11-29T19:49:00.000-08:00

We put up our brand new artificial tree over the weekend and it is ENORMOUS. The 7 1/2 footer looked sort of puny at Costco so I bought the 9 foot tree and it is just huge. On the up side, it looks good in our living room with the high ceilings. Downside is that it will never fit in a regular house should we move. I didn't realize that the measurement didn't include the stand height. But anyway, we've been having fun decorating it and starting the Christmas thing. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying Christmas. I feel like we're really a "family" now and the kids are so excited by all of the stuff that I'm excited too. I even went shopping on Black Friday at 6 in the morning. Which was too late for most stuff sadly. I should have gone at 4. But really, 4? Is anything really worth that?

I got out the Christmas decorations and the kids have all been squirrelling away different objects. I found G hiding in the closet with these little musical tap dancing things I got last year. The tree ornaments are regularly migrating to various parts of the house too. Charles is getting a little upset with them about it, but I don't mind. I just put the unbreakable ornaments at the bottom.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at Ernie and Diane's. The weather was great and we ate out on the patio. Lucky thing since Saturday a big storm blew in and it got windy and cold. It rained today a few times. Charles told the kids that he could make it thunder, but Laney worked out that it had to lightning first. I bought a new picture frame to go with my singing gingerbread house and was looking for a picture to fill it --so I was looking at last year's Christmas picts. Oh my gosh, the kids have changed soo much.

Bobcats and Babies

2009-11-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

Aack! I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving! This month has just flown by. In fact, this year is going fast. I was thinking about it this morning--we started the year with an invalid husband and the twins were little babies and we're going to end the year with an invalid husband but the babies have grown so much. They will be 18 months old in December and they are walking and talking (and rubbing toast into their hair in the case of Kenna at the moment)
Anyway, I thought I'd post a few pictures today of Halloween and our San Diego trip. Last week we went down to TEP Park and got H1N1 vaccinations for the kids. We also went to the zoo for playgroup (oh crap, must mail passes along to next group today!!) and did the normal school stuff.
[side note: if there are typos involving an L, please forgive. Kids have got crap in my keyboard and it's hard to type Ls now]
Sunday I got Charles to help me take the kids to the park so that Laney could practice riding her bike. I helped Laney and Charles walked the twins on their leashes. They are so funny. Griffin likes to hold a hand and walk slow so that he can look at everything and maybe pick up rocks or whatever. Kenna is somehow a McNearney/Phillips combo--she's charging ahead to the very end of her leash and walking as fast as she can. She is on a mission! At the park there was a group of older boys (10-12) and they were actually pretty good about playing with the kids. Especially Kenna, since she's a walking talking "baby doll". Is it that boy children don't inspire the same caretaking tendencies? I wonder about that sometimes. Griffin is never the baby for other kids. They just ignore him and he them.
In other news, we haven't seen our resident bobcat for a while, but I haven't got an update from the neighbors in the last couple days. About a month and a half ago I was woken up at about 3 in the morning by these weird noises outside. And I mean weird. Sort of a creaking sound with some croaks and other strange noises thrown in. Although I couldn't figure out what it was, it made me instinctually uncomfortable. Then a few weeks later we started getting reports from the neighbors about bobcat sightings. The bobcat took our neighbors' small dog right in front of them. Just jumped down and grabbed it about 5 feet away from them in their backyard. It also tried to take the next door neighbors' dog, but he chased it off. One of those nights, Laney woke up in the middle of the night and got in bed with me and the noises started again like they were right under the window. This time with more growling, so I figured it was the bobcat (confirmed by Google the next day. The internet is amazing--you can listen to bobcat noises). He's been eating the local bunny population on my other neighbors' patio furniture and shredding the cushions. Charles has been a little freaked out and I haven't been letting the kids play outside early in the morning or at dusk just in case. Kenna is sort of the same size as a small dog after all ;-) Hopefully the bobcat will move on to another locale soon.

Busy Couple Weeks

2009-11-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

I might need to do this in several parts because it's been a busy few weeks! We've had Halloween parties, Halloween, Laney's birthday and a trip to San Diego so there ya go. We're trying to get back into the swing of things this week and I think we're all a little tired. The twins have gone back to two naps a day! So working backwards in time...
Today we had dance class and lots of dads were there due to the holiday. Laney missed last week because of our trip so she was a little clueless as they worked through the new "routine" that they are learning. I guess they are doing a little Xmas show. Yesterday I took Laney to the Dr for her 3 year visit and then to school a little late. She weighs 32 pounds and is 36 inches tall. He tested her talking abilities (um, definite pass) as well as physical things. She still can't stand on one foot. I wouldn't say that she is the most coordinated of my children at this point ;-) She was happy to be back in school but had a fight with the teacher's assistant about getting out of the playhouse and hit her! Last week she was in trouble for screaming at her teacher. Preschool is supposed to socialize your children, but I'm noticing a definite decline in Laney's behaviour as she goes to school. I think partially it has to do with the teacher's laissez-faire attitude about the kids interactions. She allows a lot of altercations, which is fine to a point but it encourages aggressive behavior (in my kid!). I don't know. We got our "report card" and they mentioned that Laney needs to learn to ask nicely for things and be less aggressive. If I can't get the other teacher for the twins next year I don't think I will put them into school until they are ready for actual preschool.
side note: I just realized that I spelled behavior in both US and British fashion. I should make up my mind.
Kenna and Griffin are doing great except for G's tragic haircut. Oops. They are starting to talk quite a bit now, especially Kenna. They make me laugh. I cleaned house on Monday and swapped out clothes. Kenna is now in 18 month sizes, sort of. She has things ranging from 9 to 19 months that fit. She's so little in frame that tops sort of swim around on her, but her legs are too long for 12 month pants. She's just dinky.
My brain is tired so I'll add more later.

How Mommy Puts the "F" in Effort

2009-10-27T18:51:00.001-07:00

I feel like I'm in one of those dreams where you're running and you don't get anywhere. I'm so tired tonight. I think the crud is catching up with me--I've been ignoring it for a week and a half and I'm running out of steam. Add to that the wind from the massive cold front moving in and it's allergy city here. Bleh.
I guess it is supposed to be in the 50s as a high tomorrow (and it was in the mid 80s today, so wow). Thankfully it will be back up again by the weekend for Halloween and Laney's birthday party. I've been madly dashing about to get a party together by Sunday. I finally got off my duff and decided to do something. It's last minute again. I don't know what my problem is that I can't decide on things in advance. I'm vowing to do better next year. In honor of that resolution, I've picked both a date and a theme for the twins birthday in June. June 12th. Cowboys.
The post title is partially the result of the failure to plan ahead for Laney's birthday and partially due to me running around here this morning after getting up late, realizing that my kitchen floor is a biohazard, having Kenna break a kitchen chair by jumping on it until it fell over while I'm wiping G's crappy butt with dried out wipes because that's all I have left, getting dressed at the couch because all the clean clothes are piled there and then--the piece de resistance! opening the closet door to discover the I'm Special Bag and it's completely blank poster that was supposed to be done for school today. It's Laney's special week and her mother f**cked it up. Then my inlaws showed up.
So. It was Grandparent day at preschool today and Ollie and Don went. Laney thought that was pretty awesome. Hopefully there will not be a problem with her being special on Thursday.
In the win column for the week, I have to mention that I'm steadily making progress on cleaning the garage and I single handedly got my husband's metal Marine Corp footlocker to the top of my garage shelving. It's really heavy, but after much huffing and puffing and failed attempts to lift it to the top of the shelving while standing on a step ladder, I finally had an epiphany: take it apart, lift all the parts up there and then reassemble. While I was at it, I stuffed the contents of another box of Marine crap in there and cut down on the clutter. Ha ha!! Why the top of the shelves for a giant heavy item? Well, our shelves have difficult to change shelves and the top shelf had exactly the right amount of height to the ceiling. So I saved the good storage space for something we might need access to--like the extra diapers and ideally, more wipes. So, you might be asking yourself, "self, what is she doing cleaning the garage when her house is obviously going to hell?" and my answer is "hell if I know".

Oh Crap Croup

2009-10-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

We haven't passed the most pleasant of days here. Laney woke up with croup at about midnight and I was freaked out. I moved her into my bed and set up the humidifier but it wasn't a restful night. We were up by 6 again (after yesterday's slap in the head wake up call from her). Kenna woke up with a fever today too, so no one was feeling well. I'm not feeling all that healthy myself. Sigh. So it was a very long day. We got into the doctor early and went to Walmart to buy juice and tylenol.
There are days when doing things all alone is really hard and today was definitely one of them. We're all winding down to go to bed now though and then hopefully I'll be able to tackle the giant mess that is my house. I'm debating about taking Laney to dance tomorrow. Probably should skip it, but we'll see how tonight goes. Laney got a dose of steroids at the doctor but had another attack of croup with afternoon during nap time.
I had sad news last night. My uncle Ray died yesterday of a heart attack. It was a suprise to the family. I feel strange about it. He was very reclusive, so I haven't actually seen him since I was about 20. Still, it's sad.
Can't wait to get the kids in bed and be done for the night. I'm exhausted.

Sicko at the Door

2009-10-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

We've had little visitors in the night all week. The babies have been waking up a lot and getting in bed with mommy for a little while (i.e. until they start yelling "hi" at me or rolling over to smack Charles in the face, then it's back to the crib) and Laney has been consistently showing up in the wee hours of the morning and kneeing me in the gut on her way to burrow into the center of the bed. So last night Charles locked the door. This morning we woke up to a sick little girl laying outside our room. I knew I should have left the door open (award for crappy mommy goes to...). Laney was sick all day. The kind of sick where she climbs into your bed and stays there until after lunch sipping juice and sleeping. She seems to be feeling better though so hopefully she's on the mend. I on the other hand am feeling sort of sore throaty so hopefully that is just allergies and not the plague.
Went to my Zumba class today and it was so fun. Then I went out to lunch and to the mall. Where I wandered around with a breast pump under my arm for about 20 minutes. I'm cool like that. Later I was thinking about it and I guess a breast pump is a relatively personal item to be hauling around with you in public. But the truth is, I was at the mall in my sweaty stretch pants following an exercise class. I basically have no shame anymore. I just don't care. The breast pump was a craigslist thing. I've been trying to clean out the garage and it's been satisfying but kind of a pain to do all the meeting/wheeling/dealing. I've got two high chairs to go and I'm fini. I posted a car seat for $10 and got one hit this week. I'm meeting her tomorrow to sell it. But I posted picts of it today and I've got like 7 emails about it. Who knew? Technically, the car seat is supposed to go in the trash because you can't donate them to charity or whatever since they may not be safe anymore or something. BS if you ask me.
Tomorrow I need to get on the stick and get some Halloween stuff out of the way. Like costumes. I originally planned for Laney to be Little Bo Peep and the babies to be sheep, but she wants to be a princess. So possibly I can find a dragon outfit for G and the girls will be princesses. Who knows?

Tang

2009-10-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

For those of you not on Facebook, had an adventurous day today. The kids took the Costco sized Tang from the pantry and were cooking with it in their kitchen when I discovered them. Tang everywhere. They looked like ompaloompas and the Tang was piled like sand all over the living room carpet. I wigged out. The Tang vacuumed up mostly but it is starting to come up as a stain now. A huge orange stain.
The kids are doing a lot of playing together now and it's both cute and terrifying. They played out in the backyard together this afternoon and worked out how to use the garden hose. Sand and water was everywhere.
Putting Laney to bed tonight I was thinking about the new "why"stage that we are in. We read Olivia and had an in-depth discussion about Degas, his reasons for painting ballerinas, Jackson Pollock, painting, where Olivia's art supplies are stored, where they should be stored, etc. We had a similar discussion in the car on Monday on the way home from the zoo related to Barack Obama, where he lives, what his job is, how old you have to be to be president, which of her cousins could be president etc. Laney is a big Obama fan and is determined to visit him. She also has a rock collecting campaign in his honor. I'm not sure why. Maybe because rock and Barack sound similar? Not sure but we have been collecting "Rocks for Barack" for a number of months now.
Now off to sweep up the sand that got tracked all over my house and watch a NetFlicks movie, since we just joined.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-10-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

Big happy birthday to my dad today! I wish I could be there with him to celebrate. But we're thinking of him! Love you dad.

I went to bed last night thinking about my blog. Specifically, I was trying to remember what Laney was like at 15 months. During any particular time you think "I'll always remember this" but the truth is you don't. And if you're pregnant with twins and/or recently had them you remember even less. That's where the blog comes in. If I had kept a journal or blog then I would be able to look back so much easier. So I've decided to be more dedicated to the blog again so that I have a better memory, so to speak.

Griffin was having a major hissy fit this morning for no apparent reason. Perhaps he's hungry. He's a sweet loving baby most of the time but can get into these little crying jags. Laney and Kenna are having an "argument" across the table right now. They are telling each other "no" and K thinks this is a hilarious game. Laney just told me "Kenna is growing her hair mom!". I guess it's a news flash for her. K does have visible hair now.

We're going to the zoo today with our meetup playgroup. Speaking of which, I saw Mary--the founder of the group who went back to work--at Trinity dance this weekend. I didn't see her daughter Logan though. I'm sure she was there in a tutu somewhere. I was there without a child because I took an exercise/dance class called Zumba and it was AWESOME!! I had so much fun. I'm going to have to get home DVDs or something. It's an aerobics class that combines a bunch of different dance types--belly dancing, african, merengue etc.
Laney took her last official swim in the pool yesterday. It was too cold but she was determined. I have to find another place to swim this winter, which is hard to do weirdly enough because there aren't very many indoor pools or heated pools here. I'm not super psyched about having to get in with her. She doesn't mind cold water but I really do.
Well, I'd better get cracking if I am going to get all my kids dressed and ready to go by 8:15!

Weekend

2009-10-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

It's kind of boring in Tucson land. My birthday was last Thursday and it about 80% sucked. I won't go in to details but I spent a good part of the day feeling sorry for myself. The bright side of the day was going out for pizza and gelato (mmm. gelato). On Saturday we went to Debbie and David's for bbq since we haven't seen them since David got home. They were going to Washington DC on Sunday and hopefully will have a great time. Tim and Carol are fun to visit though so I'm sure it will be awesome. Ricky has a new love interest but I didn't get the details.
Kids have been grouchy and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the change in the weather. I put jeans on Saturday after going out in the morning and freezing. It was only about 65! The twins are learning new words and trying to talk more every day though most of it requires serious mommy translation skills to figure out.
I took a photography class sponsored by Tucson Moms on Saturday too and that was interesting. Dealing with f stops makes my brain ache though.

Coffee and the Keyboard and Other Adventures

2009-09-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Blogging is so hard now because if I want to do it in the morning (my least bitchy time) then I've got to hold someone on my lap while I type. "Someone" is always wanting to help by typing too or poking other buttons. The twins are fascinated with the top of the kitchen table (where the laptop is usually) and if I take my eye off them for a second I find them up there. Last week I ran upstairs to get clothes for them and Charles found Kenna sitting on the keyboard where she had poured an entire cup of coffee. Both of them stealthed up there yesterday and I found them playing with my cell phone and the home phone while sitting on the computer. Kenna also knocked another coffee into it yesterday. I had to do a system restore Saturday because my letter keys were typing numbers (?!).
We are done with swimming. Whoohoo!!!! Though I'll miss my daily chat with Pam. I'm not sure what I will do with my free afternoons. In other news, I did have a talk with the preschool teacher about Z the biting/hitting boy. She's got a somewhat more laissez-faire idea of things than I do--which is really saying something since I feel like sometimes I'm approaching the Lord of the Flies method of parenting. I guess the kid is up to two bitings now and they "watch" him. She says that it is all just part of preschool. I'm not so sure, but at least I brought it up. Of course that same day I picked Laney up and she said he hit her in the face.
Friday Laney stole cereal out of the pantry to put in her shopping cart. About 20 minutes later it was really really quiet in my house so I got suspicious. I found Delaney and Griffin behind the couch. She'd opened the cereal and was feeding him cereal and reading him a story. It was the cutest thing!! So I told Charles about it and he went down to have a look. When he checked they both had shoes and were taking turns hitting each other--in a friendly way, but still.
We went to the Greek festival Friday night as part of a sorority thing. But only Jan and I went (we were expecting others...) It was really crowded and we sat at an end of a table at the edge of the patio so for some reason that meant we needed to sit with the smokers. Bleh. I was going to say something to them about maybe not smoking next to my children, but then realized that one of the smokers was pregnant so that probably wasn't going to work. Regardless, we still had a good time. Jan played with the kids and another older couple congratulated her on her beautiful grandchildren (she went along, what the heck right?). The food was awesome. I think I must have been Greek in a past life. Opa!!
Saturday I went out for the morning and met friends for our book group. We had breakfast at Torino's and it was yummy. I had to be home by noon though so C could leave for Phoenix.

Mom-up

2009-09-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

We're so close to being done with swimming lessons and I'm so excited. We should finish up by Friday. We're all sitting around the kitchen table right now watching Handy Manny and eating bagels. Kenna is sporting a fu manchu of cream cheese and I must say she does look dashing. K and G are starting to talk a lot more, though it's still sort of an interpretive thing. G says cracker and it sounds a lot like ca ca. Yesterday at dance class we had a first. I told G to not to play with a blanket on the toy table. He was entertaining someone's grandpa and was across the room from me. For some reason, saying no to the blanket caused him major emotional upset. He turned to look at me and did this lip quivering thing and started to cry. He had to sit on my lap the rest of the time.
We were supposed to go to dance and then go to the park for a play group thing where I needed to return a baby bouncer. We got to dance but on the way to the park I realized that a) I was out of gas and b) I forgot the bouncer. So I went all the way home and got the bouncer and went to the park and unloaded everyone only to discover it was the wrong park. Missed my bouncer meetup since I was late. Then we coasted to a gas station and went to Target. I used to have this view of myself as being an organized person. In reality, I'm a complete dork.
This morning I have to have a talk with the preschool teacher about the dreaded Z (the biter, now hitter). Both Laney and Ella find him fascinating, but he hits them. I'm also wondering if the super sassy behavior that happens after preschool (sticking tongue out and spitting for example) is related to this boy. So, I need to have a chat with Ms Barbara. I would rather not, but I guess I need to Mom-up and do what needs to be done.

Beta'd out and Bitchy

2009-09-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

Back from convention and tired tired tired. We had a good time this weekend, but a relaxing weekend away it was not. I'll have to get the pictures downloaded tomorrow. I worked like a dog last week trying to get everywhere and get stuff ready to go for the weekend and then came home to a big mess. I always come home and get cranky and then fight with Charles. One of these days I'll just learn to expect it and let it go, but until then I still get really annoyed that every time I come home everything looks like crap. I suppose I should be clearer about my expectations prior to leaving or something. Laney had a good time when Vovo stayed the night. I guess they slept together. Poor Olive ;-) She must have mopped my kitchen floor for me too (so sweet). I need to hit the hay and make up for lack of sleep since I have a mountain of work to do tomorrow.

Pictures

2009-09-17T21:12:00.001-07:00

Hey, by the way, I've added more picts to the slideshow but haven't got all fiddly and reordered it so they are somewhere in the back. I've also posted them on Facebook. I don't know if you can click the slideshow and see the Picasa folder. Give it a try and let me know.

Swingin' in the Rain

2009-09-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

We had a great Sunday this week (even though Charles had to leave at 4 in the morning). The kids and I went to the craft store and book store, to McDonald's for lunch and then in the afternoon we went outside to paint with our new paints and brushes. While we were out there, a freak little rainstorm started. We just kept playing. Here's some picts:

The girls were running in the rain and having a good time. Griffin mostly hung out at the table and ate his snack. He was in a more pensive mood I guess.

It's been a busy week. I feel like I've just been running everywhere. Tomorrow night I'm heading off for a weekend away for a sorority conference. I have about seven thousand things to do before then and a major sinus headache and a lack of will to do them.

This week has been a big guilt week for me. Last Thursday night Griffin was up for hours crying and I thought he was teething. I took his pjs off in the morning and discovered that the elastic had wrapped around his little toe. The doctor said that it was dislocated and possibly broken (though it doesn't seem to be causing him pain now). I felt like crap. His toe was blistered all the way around and it's peeled off now so it is red and crusty. Poor thing. In general though I've been feeling like the not-so-good mom. My children keep getting saved from imminent injury when crawling out of the stroller behind my back (or in front of me as was the case today when K slipped out the front of the stroller without me realizing it and I started to run her over). Kenna has been having screeching tantrums in public, both climb everything in sight and it is definitely hard to keep track of all three at once. Let's just say I rely on the kindness of strangers. I also don't put on enough sunscreen, pack enough snacks, run out of wipes, fail to brush their teeth often enough and a multitude of other parental sins. I signed up for a parenting class (what the heck) and the first thing they talked about was childproofing the home. The list of things "nonchildproofed" in my house is a long one. Failure already. I was just hoping they would have some ideas on how to stay calm with a toddler who can push my buttons like she's been taking a Mavis Beacon Teaches Annoyance class.

All that whining and self pity/flagellation aside, I do want to point out that I adore my children, even in quantity. And a good portion of the time I love my life and "work". I just feel like sometimes I owe it to them to be better.

[this is why I haven't been blogging as much lately. I'm tired and stressed and it makes me a whiny poster. sorry]

In other news, the twins got their shots Wednesday and got weighed. Kenna is an even 20 lbs and Griffin was 23 lb 6 oz. He is about an inch and a half taller than she is. We'll go back for flu shots in a couple weeks. I'm terrified that they will get the flu or that I'll get the flu. If I get sick we are seriously hosed since Charles will be travelling through to November, including a lot of weekend days. Though I guess he doesn't have to go to Oklahoma next week because they chose a different product, so I'll see him for a few days.

We're almost potty trained now and Laney has been working on night time stuff. It started well but I think we're rushing it a little. I bought some more princess pull ups today and we'll back track a little on the project. She was pleased to use the princess pull up. She just doesn't wake up when she has to pee. We've got to wait for the biology to catch up with us I guess.

Tortilla in my Crack Butt

2009-09-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

So tonight Laney got on my chair with me during dinner and shoved tortilla down my pants. Putting it in my "crack butt" as she calls it. The joy. The joy.
We went to school today and Laney just left me behind. Plopped herself down and didn't even look up to say goodbye. Sigh. The twins and I went for coffee (since I was out of coffee this morning. tragic!) and went to see Alycia at Dr. S's office where I bought a sun hat for Kenna. The embarassment of taking my tan children to the dermatologist. They were being beastly too. I'll be better about sunscreen, I swear!
We finally got serious ran today. This has been the weirdest monsoon ever. Luckily we were done with swimming and just finished bbqing before it started to pour.
I'm going to watch Young Frankenstein now.

Fire Starter

2009-09-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

We took at trip to the fire station on Monday with our playgroup and had a relatively good time. I didn't have a camera since I still didn't have a charged battery. I do now though, so tomorrow I will take dance pictures. I've been unreasonably grumpy for two days, I have no idea why. But I am. The kids are literally climbing the walls and Laney has been unusually sassy.
We had school today, which I was looking forward to. Last Thursday Laney came home with a bite mark on her arm that showed each tooth quite clearly. My first thought was "what was she doing to that kid?". I got her all dropped off and was going to get coffee and do a couple things when I realized that I forgot the cell phone at home so I had to make a trek back. Then the twins and I went to Costco where Kenna was super cranky the whole time. We picked Laney up and headed home--no biting today, but three kids were out sick including Ella. Richelle told me that the urgent care place she took Ella to for an ear infection said that there have already been 10 cases of swine flu downtown at the U hospital. Swell. By the time we were all lunched, I was definitely ready to be without them for a little while. Laney was bouncing off the walls but I sent her to bed anyway. Things seemed to be going well at first but then she was up and down. I came downstairs to try to figure out a medical bill issue and she went in to the babies room and woke them up and I was PISSED. So the twins got up and Laney got spanked and sent back to bed. Things were quiet (eventually) and I went to check on her. Thankfully. I found her with her lamp on and two stuffed bears shoved in to the top of it. They were at the scorch stage. So no more lamp for Laney since she tries to burn the house down.
Twins and I went to swimming following the mad dash to look for their stuff, which I found wet and mildewy under a pile of toys behind the couch. So I had to come up with alternate wear quickly and then grabbed Kenna on the way out the door only to discover that she was poopy. Strapped her in anyway to change at the pool. Got to the pool and discovered that it was swim meet day and there were no parking spaces at all in the entire parking lot (since the two school buses didn't pull next door to the high school but parked lengthwise through 16 spaces). Monsoon storms were darkening the sky and I had to park in the high school lot and push the twins (after changing the diaper in the car) uphill along the street and into the park. Grrr (fyi the temperature was about 101 at that point). I almost went home instead. Anyway, we got them swam without a pool closure from lightening. I have a feeling that they will end up taking an extra week and I'm not too jazzed about it.
So here I am. My house looks like it got bombed. I have seven million things to do and I'm sitting here blogging. What the heck. Maybe tomorrow I'll be less grouchy and more motivated. On the bright side, our house didn't burn down.

A Brand New Day

2009-08-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Laney pronounced that today is a brand new day while sitting here at the breakfast table. So I thought I should let everyone know. Plus Kenna looks like she's going to shout "Freedom" at any moment and join the cast of Braveheart. It's smoothie day and the purple stuff is now everywhere. Perhaps smoothies aren't ideal baby food? Oh well, what the hell.
[massive smoothie explosion happens here]
Ok, so now it's after dinner. Turns out that smoothies really aren't ideal baby food. Griffin refused his but splashed it all over first. Kenna ate hers but when she was done she threw her glass over board and it exploded purple goop all over the kitchen. So I got them up and wiped off and hosed down. I had to strip K's diaper off too. I put her down to wipe up the floor and turned around to find a puddle of pee behind me.
We eventually got cleaned up and on our way though. We had dance class today and then went to a music class thing to try it out. Here's the thing they never tell you about mommy and me type classes: you work your ass off. Up down up down, dance, sing, clap, bounce baby etc etc etc. You work it even more with two babies. Then it was off to Trader Joe's for a quick shop. Laney pushed the mini cart for me and did a great job. We were with other play group moms and it made me realize that Laney does lot of things that I sometimes take for granted. I'm proud of her. We went to McDonalds afterward for lunch and they played like crazy. The twins are amazingly mobile and climbed up the slide to slide back down over and over. I was tired by the time we got home.
We did swimming this afternoon for the twins and they are doing well. All the little girls at the pool made a big deal about Kenna. That's pretty par for the course though. Kenna seems to attract girls that like babies. Sometimes I feel bad for Griffin because he's often left out of the attention. But maybe he prefers it.
I've got to go write an obituary now for convention. Yippee.

First Day of School

2009-08-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today was Laney's first day of school and we only had tears for a short while (mine). She was so big but a little taken aback by the chaos. Lots of the kids were screaming and crying for their mothers not to leave, but Laney calmly used the potty and got into her seat to play. I told her goodbye and left, then I was shocked to find myself totally crying on the way out. It snuck up on me. I guess it was just a bigger deal for me than I thought it would be to leave my baby with others at school for the first time. It could have been worse though. My friend Richelle was totally wrecked dropping off Ella. The process of leaving your first is not as hard as that of leaving your last. I was going to take the twins to playgroup at the park, but decided I didn't feel like it. We went to coffee with Richelle and then shoe shopping. It felt so strange to be out without Laney.
It has been a busy week. We went to playgroup at Jaimie's on Tuesday and had a good time. Tuesday night we swam in our pool again and the babies doodled around in the yard. Until they discovered the super fun game of throw rocks in the pool for mommy to fish out. Wednesday was dance day again and Laney did well. We had a planning session for play group afterward since I'm a co leader now. Wednesday night I had to get back from swimming and cook dinner and clean up really fast because everyone was coming over for a sorority work night. We're working on favors for convention. I also have to work through the obituary stuff. We have to do a big thing on Bill Ross, but frankly I don't really get it. I don't know if I'm supposed to admit that as a good sorority member, but I don't feel the tragedy of losing Bill. The Ross family created the sorority in the 20s during the depression and while the sorority is itself a nonprofit, the family makes its living selling services and sorority stuff to the sisters. Which is fine and all, but hardly the noble calling that everyone makes it out to be. Bad Lori. I'll work on a better attitude for convention.
Mom talked to me this week and asked whether the babies had gotten teeth. I said no, but double checked later and sure enough Griffin had a new bottom tooth. Kenna also has a bottom tooth about to pop out and a molar on the way. We're transistioning out of bottles and between naps and I'm wondering if I shouldn't take a little more time. I guess they will survive. I also quit buying pull ups for Laney. She's having a fit about the diapers, but I figure she'll be that much more enthused to do a final potty training. She came home from dance yesterday and carefully removed her outfit and then peed behind the couch. I think it was an experimental thing so we had quite a talk about it. Today she pooped on the potty on her own before school (and peed twice at school). So there's the news. Now I need to go take care of the night time ritual with Laney before C loses his patience.

Toasted Buns

2009-08-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

Kenna and I are sitting at the table to do our post this morning (and/or watch some Mickey Mouse). Her hair is standing up in a little tuft in the middle of her head and she's clapping her hands to the music. We were watching the wild kingdom in the back yard earlier. We've acquired a porch lizard and a yard bunny. The absence of the dog is notable. Laney and Griffin are jousting with the mop and broom, aka sweeping the floors. I'm ignoring them and their potential for chaos.

Laney has a little sunburn from yesterday. We went out to fish the toys out of the pool and she ended up swimming naked for an hour. I forgot to sunscreen though, so she has a case of pink butt. Griffin came out and joined us for a little while. He's done with that morning nap thing I think. Kenna demonstrated that she knows how to put together legos yesterday and I was deeply impressed. I don't think Laney figured it out until earlier this spring. I was going to put together the elliptical yesterday, but I read the directions and discovered it's a two person process at step 10 and 11. So I'll wait for Charles to come home I guess. Kenna took such a long nap yesterday morning her afternoon nap was short, so we had one on one time while the other two slept. We had suckers together. It was so cute. We ate our suckers and talked. She thought it was awesome.

I had to wake Laney up to go to swimming. We went to Calle Concordia pool this time. It was hotter than the 7th hub of hell. Absolutely no shade. Pam, our new instructor, was super nice but the babies still weren't enthused about the process. They will come around though. I'm not all that excited about spending every afternoon for a month frying by the pool, but ultimately it is so worth it. Our car temperature was 117 when we got back to it.

The festivities have moved upstairs to Laney's room and I think I need to intervene.

Monday Monday

2009-08-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

We had a good weekend playing in the pool. The Phillips clan assembled at our house yesterday for bbq and swimming. Olive and Debbie didn't stay very long though. I think Debbie was tired out after her weekend of watching kids at Roseann's. Happy 30th to Roseann by the way!! Charles left this morning for Kansas again. I imagine that he will be travelling a lot in the next few months. Laney was a pill all weekend. I'm not sure what has got in to her, but yikes.
We went to Trinity on Friday to do open gym with our playgroup and had fun. The twins explored everything and Laney had a great time. She walked the high balance beam herself about 4 times. For perspective, she was the only kid to do so... and there were kindergarten age kids there. She's so fearless it scares the heck out of me. She also thought that the bars were cool. Maybe in the spring we'll do gymnastics.
Laney and Leah had big fun yesterday (when they didn't fight). They swam and swam. Laney swam to the far end of the pool by herself with just a noodle. Charles about had a heart attack. He has a hard time relaxing. He needs to learn the art of relaxed vigilance--letting go while still being close enough to jump in to save them--both figuratively and literally. He either hovers over them or he isn't watching. I'm looking forward to having all of them swimming. We start lessons again today. It's a pain in the butt, but definitely worth it.
This is sort of a random post today, but I didn't sleep well last night and haven't had enough coffee yet. I'm still sick, which totally sucks. I'll probably have to go to the dr. Though I am getting better, just not very fast. I should go and do dishes and wash the toy piano. Laney has never thrown anything in the toilet. The twins are already starting. They threw in a toy piano. They also know how to flush so I expect some big plumbing bills in our future...

Preschool

2009-08-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

A week of firsts for Delaney. We had our first dance lesson, complete with tutu outfit on Wednesday and went to preschool today to meet the teacher. I can't believe she's getting so big. I'm sick sick sick. Bleh. Thought I was getting better but I was wrong. Wrong! Anyway, I'm carrying on. Today Laney had to go to the doctor unexpectedly because she had her first ear infection. No kidding. It came out of no where. We came home from preschool and she suddenly started crying and telling me that her ear hurt. So we went to the dr and pharm instead of taking a nap for mommy. Twins were super cute today. Kenna was running around the living room twirling around to make herself dizzy and falling down. Griffin was busy playing with all the toys and making me help him put the parts in the right spot. I'm not doing too well in weaning them from the bottle and I think I need to step it up. We're all registered to start swimming again next week with our new teacher. Laney will just do a one week refresher and the twins will go for a couple weeks to learn the swimming part of the technique. So we will have three swimmers shortly.
Swimming, preschool, dance, playgroup. Should be a busy fall. And if I could just get well, it would be better.
Also, I had sorority last night. It was a late night but fun, mostly. Had a couple weird moments that made me wonder what I've been missing...

Flying Hoo Hoo

2009-08-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

What? July 12 was the last post? It seems like just the other day. I guess I took a summer vacation from blogging. We are officially home again. We took the drive slower on the way back and stopped in Pocatello and then in Kanab Utah (Kanab rhymes with blab) before getting home on Saturday. It was a record breaking trip: no vomit!!! Not once. It wasn't a very eventful trip in general, however I will say that I had the worst meal I've had in a long time in Kanab. We went to the restaurant that looked family friendly instead of like it had good food and were so sorry. Yuck. The beer was good though. I had an Evolution Ale that was a Utah brew. Packing up all the kids at 5 in the morning though, I thought to myself that I wanted to remember that moment. The feel of sleepy baby bodies in my arms. That tiny heavy weight snuggled up to me. They are little for such a very brief time.
Prior to coming home we did the usual stuff--Art on the Green (I bought more jewelry from Spirit Lala. No kidding. Spirit Lala is actually her name), we swam in the lake and river, played in the backyard a lot, ate fresh picked green beans, that sort of thing. We've spent the last couple days trying to dig out of the massive mess that moving house 1500 miles with three kids creates. Laney was thrilled to be home and back in her room and all were happy to find their toys which immediately were strewn from hell to breakfast.
Today, while the twins were napping, Laney and I went outside to play. Looking at the pool led to some wading which led to a wet dress which led to getting naked which led to skinny dipping. I sat there and watched as my two year old swam lap after lap across the width of the pool. She must have gone back and forth 50 times. When she finally got out she was laying in a chair and yelled at me "Mommy! I just saw a hoo hoo!"
I was thinking she meant something, um, anatomical. No, she saw a hoo hoo. A flying hoo hoo. Then it dawned on me. She saw an owl!
All of the kids were playing later that afternoon and ran after a toy together. I watched them and thought that they looked like a little herd. I can't believe how much they have changed in such a short time.
Kenna can officially say a word now. Bird. She clinched the inheritance of my grandmother's McCoy pottery today. She looked up on top of the hutch and said "bird!". She was so enthused about the bird vase. Last night she stood outside saying bird and flapping her little arms.
This evening we all went swimming and ate pizza in the backyard. I've decided that I may have been too hasty in deciding never to have a pool again. I'm going to have three little swimmers by next year. Wow.

Reading List

2009-07-12T21:06:00.001-07:00

I decided my comments on the reading list we too cumbersome, so I'll start doing a "review" of whatever I read in a post and maybe linking it. "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was good. It's a thriller-ish story set in Sweden. I'd read another by that author and I don't usually read the murder thriller genre.

Flowers from Laney and Lotsa Jam

2009-07-12T20:54:00.001-07:00

Laney and Charles went to Costco together today and Laney decided to buy me flowers. Here's a shot of what she picked out. The disposable camera really didn't do the bouquet justice. The flowers are acid green, acid yellow, purple, bright blue, and fuschia. It is really something to behold. But my little girl picked them out and I just love them.

I took my berries over to Mom's this afternoon and made jam. I think/hope it turned out pretty well. I ended up with 19 jars of jam. We stayed for dinner and Matt and Michelle came over with the kids. Looking at all the kids running around in the yard (even Kenna was "running" out there) makes us all somewhat fear the next few years. That's a lot of kids... We had a thunderstorm during the last part of dinner and all had to make a run for it inside. Laney was just done in tonight and Charles put her to bed without a fuss. She's out. The last couple nights she's been staying up until 9 or 10 (even though we put her to bed at 8).

Wild Water

2009-07-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went on a white water rafting trip in Montana on the Clark Fork river. The kids stayed with Dana and we took our nephew Sean. Mom and Dad, Matt, 'Chelle, Nick, Sunny (Nick's girlfriend), Nickie (Sunny's sister), Joe (Sunny's brother in law), Aunt Lynda, Ian, Ethan (Ian's friend), Liz, Charlynne (Liz's friend), Travis (Liz's friend), Mary Jo (Mom's friend and the family chiropracter), Antigone (Mary Jo's daughter) and Jan (friend) also went. It was as big group.

Here's a shot of Sean and Charles

We drove about 55 miles into Montana to the Lozeau exit and they took us down to the river in a bus. We had a really fun time. Charles, Lynda and I rode with the boys in the only boat that didn't self bail. We got the "baptism" boat.

Our guide was Pete, who was quite an interesting character. Pete, who sports a mohawk, taught English last year in Russia and came back with a girlfriend/fiance who was our photographer. He was in the Moscow Idaho shooting a couple years ago (guy in a tower killed several people and a few policemen) and has four bullet hole scars from being shot. He's a nice guy. The picture of Pete above only shows half of him, but I was working with a disposable waterproof camera.

We were strong paddlers (so strong we sort of missed a few of the bigger rapid holes). We did a couple rescues when Mary Jo's boat dumped (twice). Sean had a really good time.This shot shows him jumping on the water slide made of overturned boats during lunch.

He was wiped on the way back though. We stopped at the $50,000 Silver Dollar bar for snacks on the way back and then at the Enaville SnakePit for dinner (it's been in business for over a hundred years and is on the north fork of the Cd'A river. It's got "ambiance" in its own way.)

This picture is of Ian after he fell off the boat "riding the bull".

Berry Picking

2009-07-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

We went berry picking at Green Bluff today with Dana and her family. It was really fun and I can't believe how good strawberries taste when they are just picked. The babies were going crazy stuffing strawberries (and straw, sticks, unripe berries, leaves) into their mouths as fast as they could. I'm planning to make jam but will need to make non freezer jam in order to get it home, so uh Mom? help?

Laney did ok with it all, but she got bored fast. She ended up picking rocks and leaves at the road. After picking our berries we went for lunch at another farm. I was initially disappointed that the cherries weren't on, but in retrospect I think strawberries were a lot more fun for the kids.

Fireworks

2009-07-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

It was a long weekend and we're all still a little tired! I finally pried the computer out of Charles hands (he went to a beer tasting--yes a beer tasting). We went up to Sandpoint Thursday afternoon and from the looks of our cars you'd think we were leaving for weeks. I felt like I took load after load after load down to the cars. Uncle (Uncle Phillip, my mom's brother) lives outside of Sandpoint. He's pretty close to the lake (Pend Oreille, pronounced ponderay) and has a little pond stocked with fish on his land. We had a big family dinner on Thursday. Friday all the girls went shopping and the guys stayed home and taught the kids to fish. Charles also worked on his "ground food". We traditionally cook in iron dutch ovens when we camp, which either Nick or Ian named ground food years ago. We brought a giant hunk of rib eye for dinner and Charles carved it up into steaks. The rib eyes caused a grease fire and when Joe and his family came up the road they were sure that the house was on fire there was so much smoke pouring from the porch!

We finally got to meet Joe's baby, Sydney and she is very cute at 6 weeks old. Liz is seeming to do pretty well with the mothering thing and got lots of unsolicited advice all weekend from us all. Poor Liz!

Saturday we went to the parade. It was really long. I hadn't been to the Sandpoint parade in a long long time (like 20 years or more).

We went down to the lake that afternoon to swim and had a big fireworks blow out courtesy of Sunny and her "connections" (Sunny's grandma is a Colville tribe member). I put most of the photos in the slideshow... I'll try to post more about the weekend eventually, but I'm tired now. I cleaned house for my sister today and I'm just beat.

About that Quail

2009-06-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted on the poultry drama. Monday evening I went over to Starbucks as an excuse to take the kids out of the house. Fresh air makes them less cranky for some reason. Laney told me on the way over that she wanted to go to Barack Obama's house in the city he lives in. She's going to wear a pony tail. She picked out a nice rock in the fountain on the way to Starbucks to give to President Obama. At Starbucks we were going through the usual routine when the barrista said that she had a baby in the back too and would the kids like to see it. A couple of bikers had picked up a quail chick on the Centennial trail and "saved" it. While looking for someone else to complete the "saving" process, they stopped for a coffee and ended up leaving the quail at Starbucks. So there it was, in a coffee cup. The barrista said that she wasn't sure what to do with it and I volunteered that my sister might take it, so I called Dana and she and the kids came down to Starbucks and got it. It went home with them and after it kept trying to fly out of the nest box they put a bantam chick in with it. The two cuddled up and were supremely happy. It's still hanging in there.

Thursday Already?

2009-06-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

I decided to do a quickie post and was shocked that my last one was on Sunday. Yikes, what have I been doing? Monday is a blur. I think I went to Costco with the circus (my kids) and that took the bulk of my day and good humor. I couldn't find the milk anywhere and had to go through the drive through bev barn across the street. Tuesday we went to the Kroc center in the morning and I put all the kids in the daycare and worked out (1 hour and 20 minutes to myself). I met Mark Rakes (those not in the know--my high school boyfriend who is now married to one of my good friends Lisa) as I was on the way out and he was heading in. He's doing good but man! he's going super gray. We will not discuss the state of my own hair... Tuesday night we went to the park for Em's 3rd birthday and had a good time. Laney had such a great time that the next day she wanted to know if it was Emi's birthday again. The purple lip crap in the treat bag: not so great. Laney and another boy took turns throwing dirt on each other at the park and when a police officer came to ask about who was illegally parked on the street, a little girl took him aside to tell one of the other kids to play nice. That's what I call using the big guns!
Wednesday we ran errands and then went to the park in the afternoon where Laney had a wonderful time playing with two boys. The older one was the dragon and Laney and the younger boy were the prince and princess. Then I worked feverishly to get everyone fed and bathed so that Ian could babysit while I went to the movies. We saw "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock. It was cute. I have to say that it is mighty convenient to live right next to the movie theater.
I didn't get any sleep last night and my children were beastly all day for various reasons. Mostly, it was just a typical day 5. It seems like we're all fine for the first 4 days that Charles is on the road but by day 5 the wheels start falling off. Today we went to the park and I took toys. I put a ball in the stroller with Kenna and Laney had a fit. She said that Kenna would throw it in the lake. Sure as God made green apples, we started around the lake and Kenna chucked the ball out of the stroller, down the embankment and in to the lake. So off I went climbing down the bank to retrieve the ball. Did I mention that there is a restaurant with a patio next to the lake and that everyone on it was watching me?? The kids in the park weren't nice today and we had to leave after Laney fought with a little boy. He taunted her as she left too and I had a repressed but strong desire to shout insults back at him. Doodie head. After a quick nap we got dressed and washed the snot off so we could walk over to dinner at Red Robin for Matt's birthday. It was fun, but there is something about that place that seems to set the kids off. All the noise? I walked over to Starbucks afterward and ran in to the Quail Girl barrista (on her day off) and gave her an update on the quail--it's doing well with its surrogate sibling the bantam chicken at Dana's.

Farmers and Fathers

2009-06-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to the farmers market and with the kids. Dana and Jeff met us there, since Jeff wanted to scout egg prices and the general lay of the land. I miss the market. There's one in Oro Valley but it is really tiny and most of the stuff isn't really grown or made by the people there. It's always festive to go to this one. A 90 year old woman did a dance to Itsty Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and had on one of those t-shirts with the fake bikini lady on it. I'm a little scarred. I was terrified to stick around too long because I heard she was planning to hula later. May I live to be 90 and doing vaudeville. I couldn't resist taking picts. Those yellow tomatoes above were delish by the way. I got an invite from the peony man to come check out his farm, so I think I will do that if the weather improves. Little known fact about Lori: Peonies are my all time favorite flower. They are just so exuberant and slightly over the top while still being so fragile and fleeting. Sigh. When I was about 5, I rode my bike to school (first grade at Washington Elementary) and took the scenic route. On the way, I passed a house with the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen (peonies). So beautiful in fact that I couldn't resist them and picked one of the raspberry colored blooms and took it to school (sorry about that mysterious home owner). I admired that flower all day. I still remember the way it smelled and its velvet petals.
Today we went to breakfast with Charles for Father's Day after giving him his tie. Ties are traditional, right? We went together and bought my Dad a Ryobi toolset that includes a two saws, a drill and a flashlight--so basically Charles got the shaft. Perhaps I'll make it up to him on his birthday. C flew to Oklahoma after b-fast and I stopped by the parents. Carter had spent the night so they were up and at 'em early. He had many new acquisitions from yesterday's yard sale at Aunt Lynda's. I'm sure his mother is thrilled. One of his new treasures is a green cosmetic bag with sequins. He and Griffin will make a good pair one day, since Griffin also enjoys accessories particularly headbands with Barbie on them.
This afternoon Kenna walked most of the way across the living room. She's on a roll now. Look out. We went back to Mom's for dinner tonight. We had turkey and mashed potatoes. Which was a great meal on a rainy cold day. I think the high temp was 65. I think Tucson's temp was 106 today. Cool and rainy isn't so bad. As long as it goes away soon.
PS Trying out a collage feature in Picasa...how does this look to you? Not sure how this will display on other's computers.

Gardening at Dana's

2009-06-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ok you lurkers, where are the comments?? I admit that I was a bad poster there for a while but it is sad to see no comments. sniff.
We seem to all be over our little plague. Laney had a little tummy bug and puked a few times and ran a fever. Kenna had something that made her feverish and Griffin is, as usual, running massive boogies from the nose. I took G to the Dr this week and will call tomorrow for results on the allergy testing.
Today I went to Dana's to garden again. It was so nice being outside in the garden in the sunshine, listening to the crickets and the calls of the pheasants, pulling up nature just as fast as I could. I still didn't get very far since pulling all the grass out is very painstaking. I'll have to go back....
Dana has another new chicken which puts her at a total of 7 (I think). She's got 4 teenagers, 2 just getting their feathers and 1 in fluffy fluffy peep peep stage. You know what I mean. She also has bunnies coming out her ears. That saying about rabbits is no lie. Laney had an incident with Colleen and a ball point pen today while I was out in the garden. She has a scratch from her nose to her eye, with a cut under the eye. I must admit I was a little freaked out about it. I mean, a 1/2 inch higher and she could have been in the punctured eye honey category (if I have not posted on the eye honey story, let me know and I'll fill you in on the grisly details). I'm not sure how you can accidently stab a toddler in the face with a pen. But things do happen I guess.
I think G stealth walked behind my back for the first time today. I turned around just in time to watch him sit back down--about two feet from my chair. Hmmm. The two of them are really getting in to the walking thing. Griffin can also climb things quite well, like in to his stroller seat or up onto Dana's rocker. He thought he was the man when he got in the rocker today. Just beaming and trying to make the chair rock. Kenna has been the sweetest baby lately. Just darling. Laney is just discovering the art of the tantrum, which is just awesome. really. May this stage pass quickly. Tomorrow we are going to the park again and maybe to the pool.

Birthdays, Babies and Blood

2009-06-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

Ok. So last Thursday I finally overcame my party block and got cracking on thinking of something to do for the twins. Friday I worked like a little beaver to order food, cake, buy party supplies, etc. Plan A was to have the party in a park, but the park was booked, so plan B was my mom's. We had a backyard bug theme (for my Kenna bug) and it turned out well. Charles and I made hanging bugs out of paper lanterns and bug antennae for all the kids out of pipe cleaners and headbands. We made the cutest treat bags that were little honey bees. So I got all Martha at the last minute. The cakes turned out cute. I got a mini cake for each child and a big cake for the rest of us. We lit a candle and sang to each of them. I think it's a shaft to have to share everything--it doesn't take that much to sing to each kid. I think we had about 18 people or so. I forgot my camera (!) so had to use my mother's. I need to run over there and abscond with it to get my pictures, since anything I take on that camera goes into the great black hole of never downloading to anywhere.
Sunday we had a relatively quiet day. I went out and bought some new running shoes. My feet and my chest changed sizes with the babies, not in a good way. I've got to start working out at the gym we joined since I've been eating like I'm on vacation for three weeks. We went over to Mom's for dinner and I had to have the discipline discussion with my dad again. He thinks my children are unruly. Honestly, my kids are sort of pesty (at home--they are usually quite good in public). Disciplining children is a tough thing and I'm sure I need to do a better job of it. Or at least figure out how to do it well before I have two more toddlers! Yikes.
The babies have been a little cranky. Kenna was sick on Sunday with a fever (and was awake allll night) and Griffin is still leaking from the nose at an alarming rate. I finally bit the bullet and took him to the doctor today. The doctor says that some kids are just snotty, but that he might have allergies. He suggested a blood test to figure out what the boy might be allergic to and possibly treatment with Singulair eventually. So we went for a blood draw. Turns out that taking blood from a tiny baby arm is not really that easy and Mr. No Nap was not happy. He did ok until the needle was removed and then he had a hissy. During the hissy the little piece of gauze got dislodged and he started squirting blood all over the place. Acckkk!! Once we got that taken care of he calmed down (basically so he could smile and wave at all the people in the waiting room).
I met a woman in the waiting room who was expecting twins as a surrogate. It's her second time as a surrogate. How cool is that? I admire most deeply anyone who can go there for another woman. Twins though.... wow. She says that she has very easy pregnancies. But I'm here to say that having a single baby is a whole different ball game than having two at a time. The upside for her is that after a grueling pregnancy she doesn't have to spend the next six months with two new babies. I hope it goes well for her (and the new parents/babies).
We also went over to Dana's today to play in the garden and check out the latest bunny and chicken additions. It was muddy but fun. Though I hate weeding out grass. Grass is a pain in the ass. I will be returning to weed and clean her house for her since she volunteered to watch my kids when we go rafting in July. After we went there and prior to the doctor I had to take my children to WalMart to buy bottle sleeves. I went in there with mud all over me with my children looking like hell all covered in snot and dog hair and dirt and ketchup. I walked really really fast to get the shopping done. Though, in a way, I sort of blended. Sadly.

Laney's First Haircut

2009-06-10T06:59:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, after awaking at an ungodly hour, we all went to the mall to go bra shopping. What incredible fun you must be thinking to yourself. I bet you can't imagine what could be more pleasurable than trying to navigate through the unmentionables with a twin stroller and try on bras (lamenting the sad results of nursing three children) while your toddler yodels out the bottom of the door. I can hardly think of anything more joyful. Laney shoplifted from Gymboree, so we had to go back and return some things. Cute stuff though. If I was in the mood to spend stupid money on kid's clothes, I would totally go there. After our lunch at the food court--kids were all good, people all stared--we had to make a trip to the potty. Gross. What is with people and their willful disregard for hygiene? Then we got Laney a haircut. I made the mistake of answering my cell phone while in the hair place and my daughter found herself a lovely lip balm on a key chain for $9.50 (!!) that she thought was so great she tried it on. So she got her first "real" haircut and a rockin' lip balm. Said lip balm was the impetus of a massive meltdown at Hallmark and then again at home prior to nap. All of the kids passed out immediately upon entering the car (and Laney promptly peed in her sleep). Twenty minutes later, I unloaded everyone, got them upstairs, fed the babies their bottles, put them back down for a nap and then fought with Laney for 2 1/2 hours about taking a nap. I needed a nap. No nap.
Tired and disgruntled, I thought we'd make it easy and go to the pizza place for dinner. Pizza place is closed. So we went to Red Robin. It was not an easy dinner. But eventually they all went to bed. Today is a new day, right?
Speaking of today, we got up at a more reasonable hour, waking me out of a dream in which I was running a marathon that involved hanging on to ledges and going through other obstacles--weird, things are going better. Griffin was just trying to put his shoe on and said "ball". They are about to go down for an early nap.

Books, Bunny Ranch and Birthdays

2009-06-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

I remember a time when no one woke me up at 5. I even remember a day when I could ignore a certain someone until around 7. You cannot ignore three someones, especially when two of them are right next to your bed. I should have gone to bed earlier but I was finishing my book. I've read two great books this last week: "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and "Julie and Julia", which are very different but I really enjoyed both. The GLPPS was a very sweet read and interesting for incorporating WWII information on the occupation of Guernsey and JandJ is about a blogger's quest to cook her way through an entire Julia Child cookbook in one year which involves lots of the f word and staying up until 11:30 at night to eat sweetbreads, but was really a fun read too. So I give them my two thumbs up.
Laney is watching our crappy cable right now. They've got some weird kid shows. Sometimes I watch her watching something and wonder if she's just thinking to herself "what the hell?". I was hoping she would sleep in today since we went swimming last night at the Kroc center (finally). We had to wait an extra half hour for them to open up the cove pool and tried out the roped off part of the lap pool. Coldest water I've ever been in in an indoor pool. Yikes. We were all turning blue. Then we had to wait again for the other pool all wet. We went in to one of the family dressing rooms and hung out in a hot shower while waiting. Brrr. (Fast Fact: did you know that British people never say the word "brr"? True. I guess they just say it's cold). It was just cold in general yesterday. The high was about 65 and it rained for a good part of the day. Sun is back today though.
So to continue the recap of last week: after our day out on Wednesday we got back to the condo with the intent to not leave again, but I discovered that my near freak out at the Kroc center was perhaps somewhat hormonally fueled and I had to go out to the store again for stuff I didn't bring with me. So I did what anyone would do and called my sister and invited us over for dinner. We went over to the Post Falls Bunny Ranch and Goat Hotel to check out the animals (some of which we consumed for dinner. Yes, my sister raises rabbit for food). Thursday we went downtown for lunch at Bonsai Bistro. They have a koi stream running through the restaurant with turtles and koi. Laney thought it was awesome. They sat us on the island too, so we went over a little bridge and were surrounded by water. Afterward we went to the city park and played and went wading in the lake. Summer spirit was everywhere and people were already swimming in the lake, but it was seriously cold. Friday we had dinner at the park in Post Falls with Mom, Dad, Matt, Michelle and the kids. I took a picture with my camera phone, but am not sure how to transfer it--there was only one baby swing, so we put the babies in back to back. Hilarious! Charles came home on Friday night. Saturday I finally went in to get my "natural highlights" covered and a haircut. It was great. The place I went even gives you a glass of wine. Rock on. Then Saturday night Charles and I went out for dinner and Lizzie babysat. Sunday we went up to Sandpoint for Vadin's 6th birthday. Brian and Renee (Vadin's parents) decided to move here from San Diego. We saw lots of relatives that I haven't seen in forever. When did everyone else get so old??
Ok. Now that I'm caught up, I'll try to post regularly so I don't have to do giant ones.

Move In Day

2009-06-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

I've been radio silent for the last week because my darling husband used my computer last weekend and then packed up my power supply and took it with him to Kansas City. So it didn't return to me until late Friday night and the weekend was weekendy as per usual.

So, you may ask, what are the Phillips up to? Right now the girls are fighting with each other. Laney is in her room and won't let Kenna in. It seriously amazes me that sibling in-fighting can start so early. You'd think it would at least for the end of babyhood. But, sadly, no.

We got moved in to the condo last Monday after much running around by yours truly. It is quite nice and I can't complain at all. I just wish it had a third bedroom. My son insists on waking up at 5 and I'm just not ready for his chirpy little face that early in the morning. We're on the third floor and conveniently located near the elevator. Eventually I got the code to use the parking garage and that has simplified things as well. I've never lived in a condo before so it's all new and exciting. Sadly, they were supposed to have a Barnes and Noble here, but it didn't get put in yet but otherwise the necessities of life (Starbucks) are close at hand. Here's some picts of the new home:

Tuesday the kids and I went to the park and Laney fell and massively bit her lip and scratched up her face and leg. Blood was pouring. She's looked pretty bad ever since. But she's a tough little bird. I asked it she wanted to go back to the condo and she said no, she wanted to play. Tuesday night the kids had their first real babysitter (someone not related to them who I actually paid) and I went to graduation for Nick. Wednesday I had a massively bad morning trying to take the kids to the Kroc center and take Laney swimming. But it got better when we went to the garden party at the Post Falls middle school that was sponsored by the lifeskills class that my sister works in. Laney enjoyed playing with the kids and the kids enjoyed my children being there. It definitely gave me an appreciation for the things I have.

Saturday

2009-06-01T07:56:00.001-07:00

I know I promised to write a lot while in Idaho, but it's been hard since I'm using Mom's computer (too lazy to get my own out and add to the chaos in the house) and we've been busy busy. We had a family bbq last week on Monday and admired Dad's deck. The roof collapsed while we were here at Christmas due to the snow load and Dad rebuilt it all the spring -- bigger better stronger. It looks really good and when the grapes come back it will be really nice. Dad stained it right before we got here, so all the kids are getting covered in stain every time they go outside. It mostly comes out with spray n wash though.
I've spent the week gardening my little butt off. Which I can't complain about. I just love to weed--seriously. It's a sickness. And my parents' yard always provides lots of opportunity to get my fix. I've also been cleaning house in preparation for the big party this weekend to celebrate Nick's graduation. We're having a luau tonight and 'Chelle has been working really really hard on it. I'm sure it will be really fun. We're expecting around 55 or 60 people.
Laney and I helped Dad plant the garden this week too. I used to plant the garden every year with my Grandma too. The kids and I went to Rendezvous at Ponderosa Elementary on Thursday to visit Colleen. The 4th grade class ends their year with this big exposition on pioneer living. We learned archery, horseback riding, cast iron cooking, fishing, log sawing, native american crafts, and participated in storytelling in teepees, soldier reinactments (including cannon fire) and some other stuff. It was pretty cool. We met Matt, Michelle and the kids at McDonalds for dinner and play time on Thursday night.
I still haven't bought a stroller. I went to a big used baby sale today in the hopes of finding another used one, but people either bought them all already or just don't have a lot of need of twin strollers here. So I'll probably have to go to Spokane tomorrow to buy one. I look sort of pathetic running around with a missing front wheel.
We move into the condo on Monday (but Charles won't be here for the whole week. Maybe I'll tell him where we are... maybe not! ha ha).

And here we have Idaho

2009-05-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

We've officially arrived. The journey was long and wet. It rained in Arizona, Utah and Montana and was cold, but as soon as we made it over the pass into Idaho the sun came out and it was 80. It's just gorgeous here and was beautiful the whole drive. Everything was green. In Montana, it looked like the hills were covered in bright green velvet and the canyons and rocks near Kanab were beautiful and bright red with the water and the sun coming through the rain clouds. The kids were really good throughout although Laney puked a bunch of times again. The only time in my life massive allergies were a blessing. I couldn't smell the car. Our hotel in Provo didn't have a second pack n play, so I slept with Laney and Charles slept with Kenna. I use the term slept loosely. We haven't really slept much in two nights. We did swim with all the kids last night and that was fun. Laney wowed 'em with the new skills. It was crowded in the pool though. I love that about Utah--we fit in just fine. We were joined by a family with a least 5 kids and then another with around 9 or so. The circus effect of our family is definitely blunted in that state. On the other hand, cribs can be scarce...

Mash it with a Can

2009-05-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

Laney was doing patty cake with Elizabeth and here's the words:
patty cake, patty cake baker's man
roll it up roll it up mash it with a can

We're having a good time with Liz. I don't know if she's having the best time of her life, but Laney thinks it's awesome to have her to play with. I'm busy busy busy trying to get everything done before we leave and I suspect tomorrow will be crazy. Not to mention the endless drive that I am completely dreading. It will be a bummer not to have Charles in the car with me. Lonely. I have lots and lots of kid dvds to listen to though. yeah

I will post like crazy once in Idaho, I promise.

One Small Step...

2009-05-18T08:32:00.001-07:00

We have a new walker. Look out world, Kenna has taken her first steps! Laney had a horrible rash yesterday from some unknown source, but it seems to be better now. I guess she touched something she was allergic to. The G man is eating like there is no tomorrow. I'm not sure where he's putting it all, but seriously he eats more than Delaney. I'm still pretty sad about the cat. I keep expecting her to be there--like maybe she's just sleeping somewhere. I just feel weird without her and Des around. I realized that this is the first time in 13 years that I haven't had a pet. We finally got our storage unit emptied yesterday and then I ran errands all afternoon. Today I did yardwork and blew off the yard. There is something about blowing off the yard that seems to attract the neighbors to me. I'm covered in dirt and sweat and snot (allergies make me sneeze like crazy) so that is of course the time they all come to say hello. Yeah! They probably wouldn't recognize me with a clean face now.

Goodbye LC

2009-05-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling bummed today. I need to take the cat in and decided this was the day (but we'll see if I don't chicken out later). I feel like there isn't a lot that is exciting to report. We don't seem to be doing much lately. Desi is doing ok at Mike's but she discovered skunks the first night there. She's also been trying to go home with anyone who opens a car door. That sounds more pathetic than it probably is though since she always tried to get in our cars if a car door opened and she was there. Kenna is doing a lot more stands on her own. Griffin is being Griffin. He's playing with the tank right now. They all love that thing--I bought it as a gag gift for Charles for Christmas and the kids think it's the best. It drove into G's tummy yesterday and he laughed like crazy. Swimming is going well, though G is still having troubles rolling. I'm looking forward to the end of it. A bug stung me twice yesterday at the pool and I had a brief panic moment, but it wasn't a bee.
Our big deal yesterday was that we had an entirely diaper free day and no accidents with Laney. Good job! Griffin was up last night a whole bunch of times and I was just not sleeping well anyway, so I'm fading already and it's only 8. Not good. I have to go retrieve Kenna from the time out pen now. I've instituted the time out pen for stair climbers...

Getting a Do Over

2009-05-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

I think I need a Mother's day do over. The majority of my day was spent in the car with screaming children. Charles fought with Laney on every leg of the trip. We spent the day at Mike's place at it wasn't too bad actually. But it was hot hot hot and really dusty. The kids rode quads and horses, played with the chickens and turkeys and generally had a great time. I went around the corner and found Laney on a horse so I volunteered to get up there with her. The horse was not super cooperative and I was afraid to insist too much with my baby up there, so Mike had to come get us when we got stuck. At first I wasn't too keen on letting Laney go on the quads and Ernie gave me a hard time about it. Since I was willing to let her get on a horse I decided perhaps I was being unreasonable. I should have been more specific and said that I didn't want her to get on the quad without an adult. The babies both went for rides on the quad with Ernie. We returned home hot, dirty and tired after a long screaming trip. I put everyone to bed early and took a bath.
I called my own mom later in the evening since I thought she'd have company last night. She was pretty bummed that neither my brother or sister came by yesterday--especially since they told her they would and she got home early just for them. So I think she deserves a do over too.